The club initially played home matches at Carrara Stadium on the Gold Coast, many years before the stadium was redeveloped to facilitate home matches for expansion club the Gold Coast Suns. The Bears began playing matches at the Gabba in Brisbane in 1991, before moving all home matches to the venue ahead of the 1993 season. On the field the club enjoyed only a modest amount of success, qualifying for the finals series in 1995 and 1996, following several years of lower-ranked placings and two wooden spoons in 1990 and 1991. The closest the club came to a Grand Final was in 1996, its last year in the competition, when it lost to by 38 points in the preliminary final.