“But You Can't Do That!” Sydney Has A Sook As Broncos And Cowboys Supporters Seamlessly Get Behind Dolphins

CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT

The North Queensland Cowboys are celebrating Mad Monday today, after being ousted from the 2026 competition in the first week of finals.

They join the Gold Coast Titans and the Brisbane Broncos who finished their season last week after failing to make the final eight.

However, this doesn't mean that the fans of these clubs are tuning out of the NRL for the year.

As was the case last year when even the Queensland Premier, a diehard Cowboys supporter, officially backed the Broncos in the 2025 Grand Final against the Melbourne Storm - there is no intra-state rivalries that are too bitter for either of these fanbases to bandwagon onto each other.

As of Saturday night, the Cowboys fans are supporting the Dolphins.

They join the other QLD fanbases who had already made the switch to temporarily supporting the club that looked most likely to go all the way.

Even after seven premierships - including last year's - it's clear that Broncos fans are pretty fluid, and not above cheering on their cross-city competitors.

This considered an outrage in Sydney, where 9 of the 17 National Rugby League clubs are based.

"But but but" whinges Cliffy Beavmough (32) a long suffering Manly Sea Eagles fan from Narrabeen.

"But you can't just change teams in the finals"

"Oh but we can" says every man, woman and child from Queensland.

"And we will"

With an abundance of teams crowding the Sydney market, NRL fans from NSW have never once considered having a second team from their own city - in fact, the other Sydney teams are their most hated.

This is not the case in Brisbane or Queensland in general - where the unofficial rules of bandwagoning go as follows:

Support your actual club until they are no longer in the comp, then support the next Queensland club with the most Queensland Origin players / or the club most likely to make a grand final. If no Queensland clubs make the finals, then support the Melbourne Storm. If no Queensland Club or the Melbourne Storm do not make the finals then support whatever Sydney club has a Queenslander as coach. If more than one Sydney club has a Queenslander as coach then support the club that is specifically coached by Wayne Bennett.