Brisbane Broncos legend blasts the club's new logo claiming 'that doesn't scream toughness'

Brisbane Broncos great Lote Tuqiri has claimed the club’s new logo ‘looks like a chess piece’ as the cross-code star delivered a brutal verdict on the badge that has left the team’s fans divided.

The reigning premiers unveiled their bold new logo on Tuesday, along with what the club said was their new battle cry, ‘We Charge On’, a statement of the Broncos’ intent to win the NRL again this season.

The side’s old logo, which was launched back in 2006 after their most recent premiership victory prior to 2025, has since been retired, with the new badge featuring a much more modern aesthetic, and is said to showcase the Brisbane River flowing through a shield around a horse's head.

Reaction to the logo has been very mixed, with Tuqiri offering a brutally honest assessment of the rebrand to Channel Nine.

'It doesn't scream toughness, I don't think,’ the cross-code legend, who played for the Broncos between 1999 and 2002, said.

‘This is a new era, and it's got off to a good start [with this year's NRL and NRLW grand final wins]. It's a bit weird; they've spent a lot of money on something that looks pretty plain. It looks a bit like that chess piece, the knight.'

Tuqiri, who won a premiership with the side in 2000, made 99 appearances for the Broncos before jumping ship to play rugby union for the Waratahs.

'When you look at the Broncos and the history of the logo, it shows innovation, but this seems to be going with the flow rather than something different,’ he added.

'The original [logo] from 1988 — I love that, the Bronco coming out of the shield.'

Among the other notable changes to the badge, the word ‘Broncos’ has been replaced with ‘Brisbane’, with designers stating the reasoning behind the switch was to ensure that ‘no matter how far we go, people know where we’re from.’

The addition of the shield was a nod to the Broncos’ original jersey that featured a golden horse running inside a red shield.

A large sweeping gold stripe has also been added to the horse's mane, another nod to the Brisbane River.

‘This is more than just a logo - it’s a statement of who we are, where we’re from and importantly, where we’re headed,’ Brisbane Broncos CEO Dave Donaghy said.

‘It honours our past, celebrates our city, and positions us for the next generation, making us recognisable globally as we move towards Brisbane 2032 and as the NRL expands overseas.

‘We’d be doing the Club, our Members and fans a disservice if we didn’t prepare for the broader opportunities in front of us.

‘And what a way for our old logo to bow out, having been part of some of the Club’s greatest moments, including the history that was made this year.’

Fans, meanwhile, have called for the old logo to be reinstated.

'Can we just go back to the classic original and be done with it? This seems unnecessary,’ one wrote.

Others didn’t mind the new badge, with one social media user writing: ‘It’s actually really good.’

Brisbane icon Steve Renouf, who made 183 appearances for the club between 1988 and 1999, claimed that he preferred the original logo, stating that the horse’s head didn’t look ‘free’.

‘If you want me to look at it with the part of my brain that's marketing, it looks like there's a horse head trapped inside whatever that is,’ Renouf told Channel Nine.

‘It doesn't look free.

‘I like the previous one, and that's not saying I hate this one, which I don't.

‘I thought the previous one was quite smart, sharp and an upgrade on the original one.

‘I liked that [the original one] and I played in that.’