Logos are more than just a marketing tool or something to stick on a jersey: they represent the club and the city (though a lot of sports teams are preferring the nickname-only logo).
Let’s have a look at the history of the 16 current NRL clubs’ logos (across the New South Wales Rugby League, Australian Rugby League, and National Rugby League). We’re focusing on permanent logo changes, and not temporary special anniversary logos.
Images and date ranges taken from https://logos.fandom.com/wiki
Brisbane
The Broncos’ classic logo is associated with their nineties domination. It’s got a silky, majestic bronco snorting away (maybe showing an attacker who’s boss, like the Broncos did for most of the decade). Their new millennium logo – like the Broncos from 2001 – is underwhelming. It’s just a horses head in the Broncos’ colours. Unlike in The Godfather, this head isn’t intimidating: it’s not really doing anything. A bit like Anthony Milford then (sorry, Broncos fans).
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Canberra
The Raiders’ iconic eighties and nineties logo isn’t as exciting as the Broncos one, but it features the Raiders’ colours of lime green, gold, white and blue, and a viking with an impressive moustache (resembling something from a Daniel Day-Lewis movie). The new millennium reboot has more green and a healthy viking beard. The logo was tweaked last year with the beard the same shade of lime green. Could it be a metaphor for the Raiders’ improved defence in 2019? Probably not.
Canterbury-Bankstown
For the first 40-odd years, Canterbury-Bankstown had a classic, simple logo. In 1978, they upgraded to the snarling bulldog, which they adjusted slightly when the (briefly) became the “Sydney Bulldogs”. When the game reunited in 1998, the Bulldogs had a new look: a blue-and-grey V with an odd-looking cartoony bulldog head. They also dumped “Canterbury-Bankstown”.
This design endured for a decade, with the only chance being the size of the “Bulldogs” font. As Canterbury celebrated their 75th anniversary, they showed off a new – and vastly improved – logo. The full bulldog was back, standing infront of the club’s classic blue-and-white chevrons with the classic CB logo at the bottom and “1935”, a nice nod to the past.
Cronulla-Sutherland
for the first decade, the Sharks’ logos were quite primitive: their first one looked like an illustration on a classic map, and their next two were black illustrations of sharks. Not really scary to be honest. In 1978, the Sharks finally settled on their classic blue-shark-in-the-black-circle design. Though, to be honest, the shark looks a little drunk/stoned.
After Super League, the Sharks followed the Bulldogs by dumping their city name and just going with “Sharks” in a light blue star. The “Cronulla-Sutherland” returned in 2004, and the shark looked a bit more menacing this time.
1998-2003
Gold Coast
Only in the NRL since 2007 (no, we’re not counting the previous Gold Coast teams from 1988 to 1998), the Titans have kept their inaugural logo. The “Titans” stands out, the swords are a nice touch, and the warrior looks ready for battle, unlike the current Titans.
Their 2022 reboot is a simplified design that works. The twin swords are replaced by a fetching blue Titans helmet, with the shading providing a nice contrast of dark blue and light blue (and the gold eyes are another winning touch). Like the Titans’ on-field performance in 2021, this logo is an improvement and looks quite sharp.
Manly Warringah
Like Cronulla, Manly kept it pretty basic in the early years, before finding their classic design. The silhouetted Sea Eagle with the MW ball has retro appeal, but the 1980 version (the flying maroon sea eagle in the white circle) is the enduring one: though the gold version of the late seventies is quite striking. The late nineties version is a bit more cartoonish, but the 2003 logo (after the Northern Eagles died) has found a happy medium between re-creating the past with a modern touch.
Melbourne
Another new-ish club, the Storm didn’t change their logo for 20 years. Trying to capture a storm in a logo is tricky, so the blue, yellow, and purple lightning bolt man (is he meant to be an old Greek god? Is he meant to be Thor minus the hair?) looks good. The purple V is important as it represents Victorian sporting teams (sadly, most Victorians are too obsessed with their silly aerial ping pong to care about the Storm). The 2019 update is a more streamlined, but the purple V remains.
Newcastle
Newcastle have kept their logo pretty simple since 1998: nothing too dramatic or cartoonish, just a knight staring into the distance. The biggest change was for the 2020 season, with the knight switching view. The more controversial change was dumping “Newcastle” from the name. For a club that prides itself on being Newcastle’s team (the poor Hunter Mariners had no chance), it’s an odd move.
NZ Warriors
Aside from a colour change from green to black when the Auckland Warriors became the NZ Warriors (and back to green when the club celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2019, to match the retro jerseys), the straightening of the tongue was motivated by a curse. To quote the https://logos.fandom.com/wiki page:
In 2000, when the Auckland Warriors were owned by the Tainui tribe, the logo was modified with the tongue of the tiki being straightened as a curved tongue is believed to be cursed (it represented physical weakness) in the Māori culture.
That ends your footy history lesson for this week…
North Queensland
While the Cowboys are a proud one-team town (especially when JT was firing), they’ve never had “North Queensland” in their logo, instead choosing the generic “Cowboys”. It’s a risky move, as it could be confused with their popular Dallas NFL namesake to those who don’t know any better.
The logo hasn’t changed much in 25 years: the blue, white, and yellow bull head has remained the same, switching between a yellow oval and a star. It’s a toss up to say which one is better.
Parramatta
Like Cronulla and Canterbury, Parramatta’s early logos were pretty simple, looking more like a painting than a footy logo.
The iconic Eels logo (associated with the club’s four premierships from 1981 to 1986) appeared in 1979, and returned in 2011. The variations between were fine, but a bit more cartoonish. Parra fans cherish the classic look, and with good reason.
Penrith
Ignoring their primitive original logo, Penrith’s logo really started to shine in 1979, when they created the attacking blue panther in the chocolate soldiers circle. When Penrith changed to the Licorice Allsorts colours in 1991, their logo changed too. Their early-2000s logo was quite cartoonish, but the classic attacking panther returned in 2014, though they dumped “Penrith” from the logo, opting for just “Panthers”. The 2019 version doesn’t have any text at all.
South Sydney
Souths’ iconic bunny rightly hasn’t changed since it was properly introduced in 1988. The big change has been the size – and appearance – of “South Sydney Rabbitohs”. From 2015, the text was gone, and the logo switched from white to black depending if Souths were wearing their home or away jersey.
St George-Illawarra
For this article, we’re just including the merged St George-Illawarra club. While the iconic Dragons logo deserves to stay, the lack of acknowledgement for the Illawarra Steelers is disappointing. They just put “Illawarra”at the bottom of the logo. There isn’t even the old Steelers logo on the jersey (even the Wests Tigers jersey has the old magpie on the shoulders and neck).
Eastern Suburbs/Sydney City/Sydney Roosters
The Roosters have had a few logo ideas, a couple due to name changes. The classic Eastern Suburbs “red rooster” logo has reappeared on recent training gear, while the Sydney City logo is quite striking: there’s a big cartoon rooster, charging like Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, with the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background. It’s the most iconic use of a postcard Sydney backdrop since the Sydney Swans’ Opera House silhouette. The current logo is pretty basic by comparison, no matter how grumpy the rooster looks.
Wests Tigers
Another young club with minimal logo changes. Aside from the recent 20th anniversary logo, the Tigers have had one big change, with “Wests” and “Tigers” equal in size from 2005. The old design from 2000 to 2004 was a bit more striking and dramatic though, with “Tigers” really standing out.
Like the Tigers of the past decade, their new logo reveal (for 2022) promised a lot but ultimately disappointed. The lone Tiger head looks like it was done during an “Introduction to Photoshop” class at the local TAFE. The claws were removed and they didn’t even add fins to lower wind resistance, nor did they add a sharp racing stripe. The worst part is there’s almost no Western Suburbs Magpies identifiers, which defeats the purpose of being a joint-venture club. If the Tigers can put little Magpies logos on their 1,000 different jerseys, surely they can add one to their logo? While you could argue it’s a homage to the old Balmain Tigers logo, this new logo doesn’t have the character and detail that the classic Balmain logo had.
