Brisbane Roar

Brisbane Roar are an Australian Soccer Team that compete in the A-League, the top level competition in Australia. They competed in the National Soccer League (NSL) as the Brisbane Lions from 1977 until 1988.

In 2004 they formed the A-League franchise Queensland Roar. In 2009 with the addition of 2 other teams from Queensland into the A-League they changed their name to Brisbane Roar.

The club was founded in 1957 as Hollandia Inala Soccer Club by Dutch immigrants and competed as Hollandia until 1974 when they changed their name to Brisbane Lions. In 1977 the Brisbane Lions were invited to play in the National Soccer League. They played in the NSL as Brisbane Lions until the end of the 1988 season. From 1989 the Lions played in the Brisbane Premier League and eventually in 2002 changed their name again to the Queensland Lions.

In 2004 it was announced that the Lions had won the right to compete in the A-League. Operating as Queensland Roar the club was once again represented in an Australian national league.

In their first season in the A-League (2005-06) they finished a disapointing 6th out of 8 although they boasted once of the highest attendances of the newly formed league. Season 2 (2006-07) started in a much better fashion although a string of defeats left them still out of Finals contention at the end of the season and lying in 5th position.

Season 3 (2007-08) was a much better season for the Roar despite having a less than perfect start, eventually at the end of the season the Roar found themselves in 4th position in the finals for the first time. The went past the first hurdle by beating Sydney FC in the Semi-Finals but eventually lost to the Newcastle Jets in the Preliminary Final.

Season 4 (2008-09) saw Queensland Roar have their most successful season.The season started with poor home form with the team collecting only one point out of fifteen points. In contrast their early away form was good collecting eleven points from the first five away games. The second half of the season saw the team improving their home form while retaining a good away form. Queensland Roar ended the season a creditable 3rd played the Central Coast Mariners who they beat 2-0 away followed by a 4-2 home win in the two-legged Minor Semifinal. This meant they faced Adelaide United in the Preliminary Final where they unfortunately went down 1-0.

Prior to the start of Season 5 Queensland Roar changed their name to Brisbane Roar due to the addition of 2 new teams to the A-League from Queensland, Gold Coast United and North Queensland Fury.

Brisbane Roar started off their Season 5 campaign disastrously with a 3-1 home defeat to their new local rivals Gold Coast United and a couple of draws. Their season continued in a roller-coaster fashion never really getting out of second gear, following great wins with pitiful defeats.

The 2009-10 season really went downhill when coach Frank Farina was sacked due to a drink driving offence. New coach Ange Postecoglou was a bit to authoritarian for many of the clubs veteran players who ended up leaving before the completion of the season. As a result of the off field problems, the Roar had their worst A-League season finishing ninth or second last.