*  The sight of Easts and Commercial playing in a BHL1 grand final is a common occurrence.  Only twice in the past 20 seasons, when Redcliffe and Bulimba clashed in 1999 and 2000, has neither the Cobras or the Tigers not featured in the final game of the season.  Easts has missed out on the big match just six times since 1990, but have won only five titles from a dozen attempts during that time.  Commercial has won five grand finals in seven appearances since 1994, including claiming three of the last four premierships.

*  Of the clubs currently competing in the Brisbane A-grade competition (Brisbane Hockey League 1), Commercial has the best success rate in Grand Finals, having won 13 of 22 premiership deciders - a winning strike rate of 59%  Their opponents for this year’s premiership, Easts, have won 7 of the 16 Division 1 deciders they have contested since their first top grade Grand Final appearance in 1983 - a 43% success rate.  Easts appeared in seven straight Grand Finals from 1990-1996, winning three.  The Tigers and the Cobras have clashed three times before in Division 1 Grand Finals, with Commercial beating Easts in 1994 and 2007 and Easts winning in 2005.

*  Apart from Commercial, the only other current BHL1 club that has won more Division 1 Grand Finals than they have lost (since 1951) is Valley, who have won 52% of their 23 premiership deciders during that time.  Of the other clubs with multiple Division 1 Grand Final appearances over the past 56 seasons, South West United has a perfect 100% record (4 out of 4), followed by University (50% - 1/2), Redcliffe (46% - 7/15), Norths (42% - 3/7), Bulimba (41% - 5/12) and St Andrews (40% - 4/10).  Of all the clubs to have reached Division 1 Grand Finals in the past five decades, only Kedron Wavell has come away empty handed, losing in 1996 and 1997.  Both years they were minor premiers.

*  In 2008, Pine Rivers St Andrews-Norths will seek to become the first club in nearly 60 years to win six senior men's premierships in a season.  Valley holds the record of having won six premierships in the same year.  In 1951, Valley won divisions 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.  Since that day, Valley has won four Grand Finals in a year on four occasions (in 1953, 1964, 1976 and 2003), while Commercial has achieved the same feat five times (1963, 1982, 1987, 1997 and 2002).  In 2007 Commercial become the first club in 56 years to win more than four Brisbane men’s premierships on Grand Final day, when the Cobras won the BHL1, BHL3, BHL4 and Classic League 1 and CHL2 season deciders. 

 
*  The record for consecutive A-Grade premierships is held by Valley, who won nine straight titles from 1934 to 1944.  No finals were held in 1942 and 1943 due to World War II.  That winning streak is believed to be a record across all grades of Brisbane men’s hockey over the years.  Other notable premiership runs include Commercial claiming six Division 6 Grand Finals in a row (1967-1972), Bulimba winning five straight Division 4 premierships (1996-2001) and Queensland Police’s four straight Division 8 titles (1987-1990).

*  The record for the longest wait between premiership drinks in the Division 1 competition is held by Bulimba.  The Bulls won their first A-Grade Grand Final in 1979 and had to wait 20 years until they won their second, after losing premiership deciders in 1980, 1982, 1984, 1985 and 1995.  But the wait was worth it for Bulimba supporters, with the Bulls claiming four straight first grade championships between 1999 and 2002  - a record post-war premiership streak.  During that time Bulimba also won three Minor Premierships, two Memorial Cups, one President’s Trophy and the 1999 Club Championship. 

*  The time since their last top-grade premiership for current BHL1 clubs are: 44 years (University), 33 years (Pine Rivers St Andrews), 18 years (Valley), five years (Bulimba), five years (Redcliffe Leagues), three years (Easts) and one year (Commercial).  University last played a top-grade Grand Final in 1968 (losing to Norths), St Andrews last featured in the big game in 1975 (beating Redcliffe), while Valley were last there in 1991 (defeated by Easts). 

*  Grand Final success hasn’t come easy for some clubs.  Before they won the BHL5 and Classic League 2 Grand Finals in 2006, Logan had never won a men’s hockey premiership - a winless period of 27 years since the club was established in 1979.  Logan had lost its three previous Grand Finals in 1983, 2003 and 2004.  University won its first Brisbane premiership in 1964 - 40 years after the club was formed.  However, University’s extra long wait was rewarded especially well, with the club’s first Grand Final success being in A-grade.

*  In 2007, Commercial’s BHL2 and BHL3 teams will look to join an exclusive group of teams which have won all four trophies on offer in a season - the Major Premiership, Minor Premiership, Memorial Cup and President’s Trophy.  Since the President’s Trophy was inaugurated in 1978, only two Division 2 sides - Easts (in 1992 and 1994) - and five Division 3 teams - Valley (1984), Easts (1992, 1995), QUT (2003) and South West United (2005) - have achieved the rare feat.  Over the past 30 seasons and across all grades, 56 teams have made a clean sweep of all four trophies in the one year, including three Division 1 sides - South West United (1992 and 1993) and Commercial (1994).

*  The unenviable record of the most consecutive losses in Division 1 Grand Finals - three straight defeats - is jointly held by Redcliffe and Easts.  Easts lost in 1992 and 1993 to South West United and again in 1994 against Commercial, while Redcliffe lost to Easts in 1998 and against Bulimba in 1999 and 2000.  In lower grades, Grand Final days in the 1970s presented mixed success for Commercial players.  The Cobras lost seven straight Grand Finals in Division 2 competition between 1973 and 1979, went down in six straight Division 3 Grand Finals from 1969 to 1974 and lost four straight Division 4 Grand Finals between and 1974 and 1977.  But that same decade the club won 13 premierships in the top four grades.

*  Over the past 50 years, the Grand Final specialists of Brisbane men’s hockey have been South West United and QUT.  South West United has won all but two of the club’s 15 Grand Finals contested between 1978 and 2006, including twice registering back-to-back championships by winning four out of four Division 1 Grand Finals (1986-87 and 1992-93).  And when South West win a premiership they often win big, with teams in 1981, 1992, 1993 and 2005 winning all four pieces of silverware on offer in a season.  QUT is undefeated from its two Grand Final appearances, winning the BHL3 Grand Final in 2003 and then moving up a grade to win the BHL2 competition the following season. 

*  Arguably the most luckless club on Grand Final day over the past five decades is the Ashgrove Methodist club.  Ashgrove Methodist, one of two clubs based in the suburb that is now home to Northern Suburbs, featured in nine Grand Finals between 1951 and 1966, but could only win two of those matches.  Famously, the club refused to play games on Sundays due to the religious beliefs of the players and officials, meaning Sunday semi final matches involving Ashgrove Methodist sides often had to be rescheduled.

*  Only three Brisbane clubs have failed to taste success after playing on Grand Final day in the past 50 years.  Kedron Park lost a Division 6 Grand Final in 1971 against Commercial.  Mt Gravatt lost a Division 5 Grand Final to Commercial in 1984 and was beaten in a Division 8 Grand Final, again by Commercial, the following year.  Griffith University lost its one and only men’s Grand Final when they were beaten by Valley after multiple rounds of penalty strokes in the 1998 Division 3 premiership match.  The Mt Gravatt and Griffith University Hockey Clubs, which were coincidently based in adjoining suburbs, are also both defunct.

*  The greatest rags to riches story in the Brisbane Division 1 competition in recent history involved South West United.  The Graceville-based club finished the 1985 season in last position, winless and 10 points behind second-last placed St Andrews.  South West scored 7 goals and conceded 113 from their 18 games that season.  The following year a major influx of players, including key recruit Greg Browning, saw South West produce a remarkable turnaround.  They finished second on the ladder behind Easts, before beating the Tigers in the Grand Final.  South West defended their title in 1987.  The most drastic falls from grace in the past two decades years saw 1985 runner-up Bulimba finish sixth in 1986 and 1994 champions Commercial miss the finals the following year, placing fifth. 1996 premiers Easts missed the 1997 playoffs, won the Grand Final again in 1998 and then came sixth 12 months later.

*  The most common match-ups in Division 1 men’s Grand Finals (since 1951) has seen Valley and Commercial play off for the premiership on seven occasions between 1959 and 1981 (Commercial won five, Valley won two), while Valley played St Andrews in seven Grand Finals between 1951 and 1958 (Valley four wins, St Andrews three wins).  This included six straight Grand Final meetings from 1951 to 1956 (records of Grand Final games prior to 1951 are not available, so that streak may be even longer).  Other common Grand Final pairings include Commercial v Bulimba (four matches between 1978 and 2006 - two wins each), Commercial v Redcliffe (four meetings from 1966 to 2004 - Redcliffe three wins to one) and Easts v South West United (four times between 1986 and 1993 - with SWU winning each time).

*  The most consistent A-Grade club in any decade since 1950 has been St Andrews.  The Saints made nine Grand Finals between 1950 and 1958, winning four (1950, 1953, 1955-56).  Valley also won four Grand Finals in the 1950s.  The most successful clubs in the Division 1 competition since (by decade) are:

  - 1960s - Commercial (premiers 1961-63, runner-up 1960, 1966-67), Valley (premiers 1960, 1965, 1969, runner-up 1961, 1964) and Norths (premiers 1967-68, runner-up 1962-63);

  - 1970s - Commercial (premiers 1976-78, runner-up 1971-72, 1979), Redcliffe (premiers 1971, 1973-74, runner-up 1975) and Valley (premiers 1970, 1972, runner-up 1976-77);

  - 1980s - Valley (premiers 1980, 1982, runner-up 1981, 1988), Easts (premiers 1983, 1985, runner-up 1986-87) and Redcliffe (premiers 1988-89, runner-up 1983);

  - 1990s - Easts (premiers 1991, 1995-96, 1998, runner-up 1990, 1992-94), South West United (premiers 1992-93) and Commercial (premiers 1994, 1997);

  - 2000s - Bulimba (premiers 2000-2002, runner-up 2006), Commercial (premiers 2004, 2006, 2007, runner-up 2002, 2005, Grand Finalists 2008) and Easts (premiers 2005, runner-up 2001, 2003, 2007, Grand Finalists 2008).

*  Commercial holds the record for the most men’s premierships over the past 51 years (to 2007), winning 113 Grand Finals across all grades.  Valley has won 88 Grand Finals since 1957, while Easts has won 36 - the bulk of those since the early-1990s.  The fourth most successful club in terms of Grand Final wins is Bulimba, with 28 victories, followed by Norths (24), Redcliffe (23) and St Andrews, now Pine Rivers St Andrews, with 21.  South West United has won 13 Grand Finals, University 10, Queensland Police and Kedron Wavell both eight and Souths five.  Winners of two Grand Finals are Pine Hills, QUT, Logan, City United and Hamilton, while Wests, Ashgrove Methodist, Newmarket, YMCA, Pine Rivers and Windsor have each won a solitary premiership.

Compiled by Lee Oliver.