Small Beginnings
Coxy started his "Unofficial Brisbane Broncos Home Page" while studying IT at Queensland University of Technology in 1995. As only the 2nd rugby league club web site in existence, alongside a Manly page developed by Bryan Gaensler, a future Young Australian of the Year in astronomy, it quickly generated interest. So quickly in fact that QUT IT staff banned his account and threatened to have him excluded from his course due to "misuse of university network infrastructure".
A mate at University of Queensland, who as a real university, had no problem with such usage of their facilities, volunteered to host the site.
Primarily a news site with some basic interactive features like picking your "ARL Dream Team", a poll of favourite/best player in each position, it was simplistic.
Super League
During the Super League war, the Unofficial Broncos site flourished, with assistance given by graphic artists and other technically minded Broncos fans the world over. So much so the Broncos themselves invited me to their Super League season launch in 1997, and to assist them with hosting online chats with players in 1997 and again in the reunification year of 1998.
A hosting company in Sydney wanted to setup a stable of Rugby League sites and gave me a fully fledged hosting package for 1998, and with it came lots of new features, including the very first discussion forum of its kind for a rugby league club.
That relationship went sour when, with the Broncos celebrating Grand final week, their hosting service went down! "ZOMG! The internet is down!" I cried.
And quickly searched online for a paid hosting provider to give me the confidence I needed. And in the process, I registered bronconet.com.
BroncoNet
BroncoNet launched in 1998 and was my "baby". It was at the peak of its generation as a fan site for a club, and was without peer. A built in "pick the score" tipping competition, video highlights (first of its kind online), player of the year "3-2-1" voting similar to the Player Of The Season competition on BroncosHQ now. It had it all.
And it launched the first incarnation of the forum we use now. The
Ikinboard named after the Broncos' most mediocre star signing since Mundine, and based on primitive software called "Ikonboard"...get it?
Things went on smoothly - another premiership in 2000, thank you - until 2001 when, while overseas, the domain name expired and was registered from under my nose.
So bronconet.com became bronconet.org.
An "intra-Broncos fan" war erupted with a new web site on the block, BroncosHQ, which was founded by a guy who shall remain nameless. Among his supporters on his site were guys who infiltrated BroncoNet's forum to try and "steal" clientele. Their names were Jebadude. The Rock. Nashy.
My loyal followers, led by Aeetee and mick, defended our fortress against the infidels and, thanks to some rather disgraceful allegations of copyright and theft against the "other guy", he folded. The host of his web site, owed money and not able to contact this person, sold his domain to me. BroncosHQ.
It was then that we split BroncoNet up into two separate sites. BroncoNet for news, views and interactive features, and BroncosHQ became the forum.
Becoming Official
In 2004, while working for Creatop, the Broncos signed with me to provide and maintain their official web site, which was linked directly to BroncoNet and the new BroncosHQ forum on phpBB. In addition, this was joined to Virtual NRL, another Coxy brainchild which was the first Rugby League fantasy competition in Australia and (excuse bias) to this day is the best of its kind.
The effort involved in maintaining the official web site meant BroncoNet began to be neglected.
In 2007 Coxy parted ways with Creatop, and so did the Broncos. BroncoNet became further and further neglected until it effectively died, and all that was left was BroncosHQ.com.
Admins
In the lead up to becoming "official", and with the previous official Broncos site linking to BroncosHQ as the official forum, Coxy had to recruit more admins. The initial list he selected was:
Aeetee
Jebadude
GCBronco
Mad Dogg
Politically Correct
The Rock
Over the years, others have come and gone:
Kingaroy Redant
Strapping Big Lad (now Raw Boned Youngster)
Russo
Flutterby
And the new brigade who have now seen BHQ travel to its first paid software system, and hopefully a brighter future:
schmix
ningnangnong
BroncoMatt
Nashy
Aeetee (like part of the furniture, he's the one constant!)
Huge credit has to go to a large number of people. Obviously all the admins and moderators, past and present, who have done an excellent job. We haven't always got along, haven't always agreed with eachother, but we got on with the job.
Particular thanks has to go to The Rock who spent tireless hours maintaining the site when it all got too much for Coxy in his own life. Many don't realise that Rock was, for the most part, the only person doing design updates, system updates, modifications and hosting management of the entire site. A huge job, and his contribution to BHQ should never be forgotten, underestimated or talked down on. Sure, there were some funny stuff ups along the way ... and the not so funny moment when he deleted the database altogether, but that's just a story that goes down in BHQ folklore! As the most passionate and dedicated Broncos fan south of the Tweed River, his efforts with the Sydney Based "Broncos Stable", his love of Virtual NRL and his dedication to BHQ stands him apart as someone who I have the utmost respect for. Yes, despite the fact he's a dirty stinking Blue! ;-)
Also huge thanks to Mal. He has helped in the last few years with design work and made the first push to return BroncosHQ back from just a forum to a fan web site. His efforts were outstanding and ultimately the only reason we've gone with the vBulletin option is because of the degree of difficulty and amount of work applied to mal and Rock to get it going and keep it going.
And of course, thanks to all contributors to the forum and web site, regulars, lurkers and long lost friends included. Since 1995, it's been your involvement and encouragement that has made this flourish and continue. To still be going 16 years on is just incredible. This web site has been running in one form or another for all of Darren Lockyer's career, and it seems fitting that this move to a new future has begun in the twilight of that fantastic era in rugby league history.
With vBulletin, we have all so many features available to us which we merely need to configure. It's a new future for BroncosHQ and I thank all of you for being a part of it.
