Conflict on Caxton

24 March 2023 - Redcliffe play Brisbane in round 4 of the NRLM season in Friday prime time at Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane

The actual Battle of Brisbane¹ was a riot in 1942, a dispute between Australian and American servicemen. The underlying causes were numerous but undoubtedly were fuelled by the pressure cooker of war, boredom, toxic masculinity, conservative mores even by the standards of the time and our good friend, alcohol.

It’s hard to imagine how much smaller Brisbane would have been in the 40s - think a town the size of today’s Toowoomba - and then how it would have groaned under the weight of being a major station in the Pacific theatre and then how life would’ve returned to a relatively quiet, semi-rural idyll that specialised in moving agricultural goods from the surrounding hinterland on to ships. The past is a foreign country.

This is the first Brisbane derby since 1996, when the Broncos, 28, defeated the Crushers, 8, in front of 34,000 at Lang Park on April 12. It was the largest crowd for a regular season club fixture Lang Park would see before its redevelopment began in 2001. That was only the second edition² of the first iteration of the Battle of Brisbane³ played before Super League split Australian rugby league in two. The Crushers started behind the 8-ball and things only got worse in a city dominated by rugby league, and in particular the Murdoch-owned the Broncos and the Murdoch-owned Courier Mail, and never recovered. It’s strange that a newspaper, especially that one, ever had that kind of influence but, again, the past is a foreign country, even though I was sort of there for it.

Seemingly, no one can quite agree on what this second iteration should be called. The NRL referred to it as the Battle of Brisbane, while the Dolphins called it the Battle for Brisbane. The Broncos refused to wager any geographical stakes, merely acknowledging the historic nature of the occassion.

Conflating a football derby with a heavily censored and relatively obscure war time fracas seems odd and perhaps the kind of thing that our children’s children will find deeply weird about the Sizzling 20s. Then they decided to hand out the “Battle Medal” to the player of the match. Personally, I doubt anyone involved has really thought about it, let alone intentionally conflated the two.

I would like to have proposed the “Jihad in Brislamabad” but it was an unquestionably scariligeous butchering of Islam to use jihad in this way and, as far as I know, no one actually refers to the city as “Brislamabad”. So, again, deeply weird. Instead, I’m borrowing a slightly less extreme offering from college football⁴.

The CONFLICT ON CAXTON it is⁵.

As afternoon turned to dusk, Brisbanites were clearly in observance the Partition of Caxton and the borders established by the Treaty of Magic Round (2022), which are enforced by Papal Bull. The Lord Alfred at the top of Caxton Street was full of Phins fans having what one can only assume was a subpar time. The Caxton Hotel, further down the hill, was resplendent in Broncos colours. The rest of the street was mixed company, with a roughly equal measure of Redcliffe and Brisbane merchandise.

In the stadium, it would be a gross cliche to describe the atmosphere, and the match itself, as Origin-like. Of course, that's what the TV presenters did because they love nothing more than smashing the easy button. But the vibe wasn't like that at all. It was a derby.

At a State of Origin at Suncorp, 50,000 people are going for the same team and united in hating the thirteen players in blue jerseys. In a derby, the crowd is split. While the faded maroon seating, the maroon of the Broncos fans and the red of the Dolphins fans was hard to differentiate at a distance, I'd guess that the crowd was roughly a 40:40:20 split of red, maroon and neutral. The proportion and volume of cheering and booing changed in line with the prospects of each team.

This is what the Conflict on Caxton is going to be, an event where the Broncos at Suncorp and the announcer trying to start a Dolphins chant are met with loud boos while it is impossible to distinguish who is trying to start what chant. It was the noisiest experience I’ve had in some time.

The contest did not unfold as I expected. I thought Brisbane would hand out a belting because when styles make fights, the Broncos’ style had more than enough to fight off the Dolphins'. Instead, we saw a - ahem - battle between one very talented team and one very well coached team and a struggle that became increasingly engrossing for the committed and undecided alike, until Kotoni Staggs made his break to seal the result, prompting some fans chose to make their way to the exits to begin the long journey back to the peninsula.

The Broncos chose to play the same hand as they had against the Dragons: the pack went to work laying a platform on which the backs could try some ad hoc bullshit, which didn’t come off until late in the game. The Dolphins played the same hand as against the Knights: maintain a surplus of possession, work methodically against the other team and take the chances when given. They took those chances but they were few and far between.

The spectacle was marred by errors. The Broncos pushed the ball too hard. The Dolphins just kept dropping the ball. The completion rate between both teams was only 69%. Ultimately, the Broncos forwards prevailed as the Dolphins were running on empty for the final fifteen minutes and struggled to contain the Broncos’ attempted line breaks. The dam inevitably burst, although in less dramatic fashion - but perhaps more spectacularly - than the previous week.

Despite the 4-0 start, Walters has work to do. Capewell spent time hiding out on the wing. Whether this is due to injury or condition, and despite his try scoring effort⁶, his place in the starting line up has to be up for grabs. Farnworth needs to be reminded that he has teammates. Cobbo looked like a ghost of himself and while he still made major plays, he didn't chase the game with anything like the intensity that we've seen earlier this season. Whether Kev chooses to address any of these issues at risk of upsetting whatever he's put together these last few months, and speed run the end of 2022 again, or roll on until the wheels come off, or come up with an actually workable solution, is the first test of his premiership aspirations in 2023.

Bennett's problems are more mundane. A roster that most would have agreed pre-season is the worst in the league is now absent key members. Felise Kaufusi has another three weeks on the sidelines. Sean O'Sullivan tore his pec and that'll be the rest of his 2023 in doubt. Kodi Nikorima will probably have to sit at least the next 11 days. We'll see when we see about Isaiya Katoa. While Wayne's system is built for Guys, of which he has a surplus, and not Dudes, of which he has barely any, and eminently suits the next man up, the quality of those next men up will be key. If Milford's play is anything to go by, it could feel like an age before the Dolphins are back to this level.

A full strength Dolphins might have been able to slip into the finals. Jeremy Marshall-King returns next week, which will help, and it turns out Tom Gilbert is the kind of maniac I will enjoy watching play when he's not playing against my team, but this team's future is getting bleaker with each injury and suspension. While this first month of NRL Redcliffe has been an unmitigated success, the season is long.

Then there's another one after that.

And another after that.

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1. The Battle for Brisbane is an insane notion as no one has ever tried to sneak past Fort Lytton. Or at least, no one has wanted to invade since John Oxley turned up and started displacing Turrbal people.

2. The first, also won by the Broncos, was played in front of nearly 50,000 at the old QEII.

3. Obviously, the BRL didn’t have Brisbane derbys, with Brisbane preferring to spar with Ipswich and Toowoomba in the Bulimba Cup. Up the Poinsettias.

4. I would have also accepted the Classica Civoniceva, the River City Rivalry or the Meanjin Match.

5. The reverse fixture in round 17, to be played at the Gabba due to the women’s World Cup, will need to be temporarily branded the Vendetta on Vulture or the Showdown on Stanley, before reverting to Conflict on Caxton for 2024.

6. That anyone on the Broncos left could have taken and made less of a meal of.