Despite the wealth of star players the Crushers managed to attract, they were financially unsustainable and competitively unsuccessful, which ultimately led to their demise at the end of 1997.

In 1982, the Canberra Raiders from the Australian Capital Territory, and in 1988, the two Queensland based teams, one from Brisbane and the other from Gold Coast were admitted into the NSWRL.

[1] In September 1993, the Crushers chose Bill Gardner as the coach for the team, but after a poor off-season, he was replaced by former Australian international Bob Lindner.

Darryl van der Velde, a former Brisbane player with experience coaching in England, was the club's inaugural chief executive.

The club chose Lang Park, which had been abandoned by the Brisbane Broncos in favour of QE II Stadium in 1992,[1] as their home ground.

By the beginning of the 1995 competition, the Crushers had also signed North Sydney forward Mario Fenech, who the club named as their captain.

[2] An injury to Dale Shearer and the difficulties for Garrick Morgan to adapt to rugby league saw the Crushers fail to utilise much of its attacking potential.

With first-grade rugby league divided between two competitions, it would be hard for the Crushers to recoup lost money in establishing the club as it ploughed further into debt.

[1] In late 1997, the club's only option of survival was to merge, with the most likely contender the Gold Coast Chargers, who like the Crushers, were struggling to be able to compete in the competition with the hugely successful Brisbane Broncos being the dominant team in south-east Queensland.

Other notable players include Dale Shearer, Mark Hohn, Craig Teevan, Mario Fenech, William David Gressly, Nigel Gaffey, John Jones, Tony Kemp, Phillip Lee, Danny Nutley, Mark Protheroe and Kurt Wrigley.

Players who went on to be successful with other clubs include Clinton Schifcofske, Mark Tookey, Scott Sattler, Travis Norton, Chris McKenna, St John Ellis, Steele Retchless and Danny Nutley, Grant Young.