The Northern Suburbs Devils, or North Brisbane Devils, or often simply referred to as Norths for short, are a rugby league club representing the northern suburbs of Brisbane, Australia. The team colours are sky blue, navy blue and gold. They play in the Queensland Wizard Cup, and, through their predecessors, are one of the oldest clubs in Australia. Norths have won 13 A Grade, 17 Reserve Grade and 14 Colts/Third Grade Premierships. They hold the record for most consecutive A Grade Brisbane Rugby Leaguepremierships, winning six in a row between 1959 and 1964.
History
Before rugby league
The first incarnation of Northern Suburbs was the Past GrammarsRugby Union club, which was formed in 1891 as a separate Old Boys football club for Brisbane Grammar School.It shouldn't be confused with the school team known as Past & Present Grammar which competed from 1888–90. The club was quite successful in its early years, winning premierships in 1892, 1898 and 1899, as well as 1914. Wallaby captain Bob McCowan was a Past Grammar played when he led the national side in 1899.
Past Grammars, also known as Grammar Norths, won their first premiership in 1927, before becoming Northern Suburbs, following the introduction of District Football by the Brisbane Rugby League in 1933.
Post-war
In 1959 Clive Churchill captain-coached Brisbane Rugby League club Norths to a premiership, his training methods were carried on by Bob Bax who coached Northern Suburbs RLFC to become the first club in BRL history to win three consecutive first grade premierships when they defeated Fortitude Valley 29–5 in the 1961 grand final in front of a record club crowd of 19,824 at Lang Park. Norths continued to dominate the decade with 7 grand final wins in 8 appearances. It would be another 11 years before they tasted success again. Norths' Queensland representative player Nick Geiger was selected as the Australia national team's hooker in the final of the 1977 Rugby League World Cup tournament.
1990s
In the 1990s, along with many other Queensland clubs, Norths suffered heavily financially. Eventually it came to the stage that in 1998 they became a feeder club with National Rugby League newcomers, the Melbourne Storm, which attracted much needed finance, as well as some quality players, as well as securing the Devils' future. Also in 1998, the club won its first First Grade premiership since 1980, beating Wests in the Grand Final.
2000s
In the 2006 NRL Grand Final Melbourne's 17 man team had 13 players who had played with Norths in past years, including Matt Geyer, who won a Premiership with the Devils in 1998 and Melbourne in 1999. In the 2006 Tri-Nations series, 4 Norths players graduated to the Australian Kangaroos squad and 2 players, via Melbourne Storm, represented New Zealand Kiwis. In 2008 the Devils signed a partnership agreement with the Brisbane Broncos which sees developing Broncos players train with and compete for the Devils in the Intrust Super Cup. In 2018 Rohan Smith was recruited to be the Head Coach of the club. In 2019 he led the Devils to the finals, with the team falling agonizingly short of progressing past the first round.
Home grounds
For many years Norths played out of Oxenham Park in Nundah, but they moved to their current home ground, Albert Bishop Park, in 1969. Commonly referred to simply as 'Bishop Park', it borders the Schulz Canal in Nundah, and is named after club stalwart Albert Bishop, MBE. Norths has a licensed Leagues Club, Norths Leagues, at Bishop Park, as well as a second licensed Club at Anzac Avenue, Kallangur, further north of Brisbane.
On 16 August 2008 in the year of the Centenary of Rugby League, Norths Devils announced their greatest team ever. The team is made up of players in their entire 75-year tenure.
