The team’s chosen name and logo was a nod to the native blue tongue lizard, commonly found in Brisbane and South-East Queensland.

From that point the visiting Brisbane team scored four more unanswered goals before Matt Lehoczky gave the home fans something to cheer.

[7] The following two years in Brisbane saw the Blue Tongues improve each season, finishing sixth and fifth in the standings, failing to qualify for the AIHL finals weekend on both occasions.

Zamnuner had spent thirteen seasons playing in the NHL with teams such as Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning.

Garner was a New York Islanders draft pick from 1998 and later played three games in the NHL for the Calgary Flames before a hockey career that took him around the globe.

Emblem, originally from Montreal, Canada, stepped into the new role with the team possessing a vast hockey experience, having won two Goodall Cups and representing Australia at the World championships in the 1980’s.

They won fourteen of twenty-four regular season games and had a +22 goal difference that led them to finishing fourth in the league standings and qualifying for finals for the first time.

[19] The duel Canadian/Portuguese import forward scored 42 goals in the regular season, beating the previous record of 39 set in 2007 by himself when the team was located in Brisbane.

[21][22][23] These cancellations, led to the rink owner evicting the Blue Tongues from the venue and forcing them, at short notice, to seek alternative arrangements for the final seven AIHL home games in the 2012 season.

[27] The team had explored different options for a home venue for 2013, including building a temporary professional rink on the Gold Coast or temporarily relocating to Brisbane, Erina or Perth, but had ultimately been unsuccessful in securing a financially viable and workable solution.

[28] The two parties committed to working together to explore all options to returning the Blue Tongues to competition in 2014, including building a new proposed $15 million twin-sheet ice sports facility on the Gold Coast.

[29] In November 2013, it was revealed the situation to find a workable home venue for the Blue Tongues had not shifted and that the team’s license would remain suspended for the 2014 season.

[30] The team had continued its search for a new home and progressed the proposal for building a new ice sports stadium, with a business plan and architectural designs complete.

Dave Emblem had reportedly joined the Mayor’s Trade Mission to China and Taiwan to continue discussions with potential investors in building a new ice sports facility on the Gold Coast.

[32] The Blue Tongues General Manager, Dave Emblem, had unsuccessfully continued to try and find a sponsor to build a new twin-sheet facility on the Gold Coast.

[33] With no solution found in two years, the Gold Coast Blue Tongues’ AIHL license expired in 2015, ended the team’s involvement in top level ice hockey in Australia.

Following the demise of the Blue Tongues, the AIHL canvased the Brisbane ice hockey community to gauge if there was any interest from another ownership group for a new team in the state’s capital.