2025 Queensland Cup grand final
27 September 2025 - Burleigh play Norths in the grand final of the Queensland Cup
Your correspondent begins grand final day at the waterfront Belvedere Hotel in Woody Point. The nouveau Queenslander pub is the kind of a place where a couple of alphas might like to hang out but today, the focus is watching the Brisbane Lions defend their premiership against the Geelong Cats.
Two screens in the public bar showed Seven’s coverage, wedged in between obligatory TAB horse racing, while the biggest screen is dedicated to Keno. The audio system lagged behind the video by about ten seconds. This provided the opportunity to form an amateur’s judgement of whether the play on screen is good or not, before waiting for the commentary and crowd noise to confirm. The women’s QDub final plays on my phone and I am not expecting it to be competitive. The water of Moreton Bay laps on the rocks at Crockatt Park across the street. Nearing half time, it’s time to make the move and the commute across the Peninsula. Parking at Dolphins Oval is as convenient as it has ever been.
The Norths Devils and the Burleigh Bears arrive in Redcliffe having taken similar routes. The Bears were minor premiers and finished a draw ahead of the second-placed Devils on the ladder. Both won their preliminary finals by scores of 18-16 on match winning tries scored in the last five minutes. Both teams play in similar styles. Both clubs were seeking their fifth men’s title. This felt like a coin flip in the offing and like all pre-game coin flips, it felt like we might be in for a classic.
After an attempt at the national anthem in which attendees were not asked to rise and the audio dropped in and out, forcing the singer to gamely rouse the crowd to fill the gaps (job well done, worthy of applause), the grand final got underway.
The weather gods provided a perfect early spring day. Warm, just enough humidity to let you know you’re in Brisbane and a fresh breeze off the water. While the wind would not play a decisive role, it did influence the play on the field. The yellow XXXX banners were stiffened by the wind, running from north to south, for most of the game. While you would assume the tailwind would be beneficial, teams struggled to provide suitable chase on their wind-assisted kicks and found ajdusting to the headwind an easier option.
The Devils insisted on playing through the middle, even though it was readily apparent that they were not winning the ruck, the battle or the day. When Norths belatedly decided to switch plans, the playmakers sent the attack sideways instead of forwards. What few opportunities offered up by the Bears were squandered by errors.
In my preview, I was right to highlight that this game would hang on the halves but I had the conclusion back to front. Jack Ahearn and Sean O’Sullivan looked completely bereft of ideas, and the ones they had were bad. Guy Hamilton and Josh Rogers seemed to rarely put a foot wrong in scintillating performances that earned the latter the Duncan Hall Medal, which could have justifiably gone to the former.
While it was close on the scoreboard in passages (it was 10-8 heading into the sheds), you never felt that the Devils were really going to get there. Burleigh won comfortably, 22-8. Norths were short a pack that could keep them within arms length and then deficient in the kind of individual heroics that had gotten them over the line, metaphorically and literally, in previous grand finals. There was no Brayden McGrady or Tesi Niu to seal the result. Also, Norths could not tackle all day, which seems an important detail.
It is hard to get aggrieved about the result when one of the teams in question was clearly better than the other, and it wasn’t the team playing for their fourth premiership in five years. Whether the Two Blue dynasty is at an end remains to be seen, as a single loss doesn’t necessarily terminate Norths’ quest to be the defining team of the 20s, just as missing the finals in 2023 did not preclude the premiership and national title in 2024.
The full credit goes to the Burleigh Bears, who won their first title since 2019. That 2019 team, which dominated Wynnum, 28-10, in the last reasonably well attended Queensland Cup finale at Redcliffe, was made up of some eminently Burleigh guys - Kurtis Rowe, Sami Sauiluma, Pat Politoni, Luke Page - with a sprinkling of Titans fringe roster players and a few journeymen plying their trade. This represents something like a classic Gold Coast rugby league formula for success.
After years of contending, that core of the Bears moved on, choosing to find other life pursuits. By the time of the 2023 defeat against Easts, only Politoni and Sauiluma remained and then Politoni retired (I guess) after last year’s ignominious week 1 exit against the Capras. The Titans’ attempt to get their own reserve grade team forced the Bears into the embrace of the Broncos, at first a rickety endeavour but now looking much more certain.
The only constant is change and this grand final represents an apex for the “new” look Bears, leaving behind the 2019 model and the 2023 side in transition. That new model consists of, among others, Kea Pere (no longer a Titans guy but still a Bear), Cole Geyer, Matthew Koellner, the barnstorming running of Takitau Mapapalangi, and the ringmaster, Guy Hamilton. Others will emerge, perhaps as the Bear establish their own counter-dynasty and the Broncos’ fringe roster changes in response to Red Hill’s own needs.
Hamilton, a former Tiger, Falcon and Magpie, has been with the Bears since covid. He has been one of the best players in the competition for the better part of a decade without ever being good enough to sniff a NRL opportunity. Formerly fond of overplaying his hand, experience has tempered his instincts and turned him into the perfect Queensland Cup weapon, good but not too good to be unavailable. He fully deserves this title, his first win after a less steady performance in 2023 and coming off the bench in 2017.
Putting aside the beauty of the sunset and the agonised relief of the 2025 title finally being awarded, the match was something of a pedestrian affair. While the program of events seems good on paper, the idea that anyone is sitting from 10am until 6pm to watch four lower grade games seems optimistic for the average punter. I am not the average punter and I only came for the last game and there would have been less than 5,000 there for the haphazard anthem, down from nearly 8,000 a few years ago. If nothing else, the gaps between games need to be as close to zero as possible but even then, I imagine I will be retired before I spend the better part of a Sunday watching City-Country1.
The switch back to an afternoon grand final didn’t seem to have the intended effect. While it was brave of the QRL to fly the flag of rugby league against the Hunnish incursions of the AFL - the cowardly NRL would never - at least a part of every attendee’s attention was on a phone, checking the score from Melbourne. There was no great roar when the result was finalised but seemingly everyone knew the Lions were rapidly blowing out Geelong in the fourth quarter. While I have no love for the fisted code, the local team winning a fifth title - the equal most of the AFL era by my reckoning - in the most watched Australian rules grand final in a decade is still of general interest.
The result was not particularly in doubt, even if it took some time to reach a probable outcome and then finalise it, in both the men’s and women’s games. We lacked the psychotic violence of the 2024 Dolphins or the 2023 Tigers’ inexplicable luck paired with refereeing incompetence that might have otherwise spiced up the affair. It was a clinical performance from a professional team and a bad performance from the dynasts.
The Tigers’ victory in the women’s final was entirely as expected. Three quick jabs in the run to half time was more than enough for Easts to punch in the clutch, swat away Burleigh’s ripostes and become the first Brisbane side to win the BMD Premiership. Enah Desic, the 17 year old halfback for the Tigers, had to get special permission to play and is one to watch for the future. Plenty of these Tigers will likely matriculate to the next level for 2026.
That the Tigers first game in the competition was against the same side, and decided rather conclusively (70-nil) in the Bears’ favour brings the whole narrative arc of football at Coorparoo to satisfying conclusion. The perfect end to their perfect season.
Except, of course, there is next year. The story never ends.
Thank you for reading The Maroon Observer
In an entirely different article to that linked by Stinky Pete “Biological Firestorm” Badel, and once you scroll past the faffing about of Seven being kicked out of Broncos training, you’ll find the story.
This latest attempt does what it says on the tin. When added to the defection of Melbourne Storm to NSW and the 2023 Kyle Laybutt scandal, it all adds up. It is not difficult to do the maths, read the tea leaves and draw a conclusion that a new world of reserve grade footy is struggling to be born.
The big wigs that run NRL clubs have brainrot. In the same way that the Maroons’ 8-in-a-row means that the Blues winning back-to-back brings them no joy because two is not eight, the Panthers’ run of four premierships in a row means that winning just a single premiership is considered a failure by management. Establishing an all-conquering dynasty is the only measure of success. Look no further than the approach taken by Belmore this year.
Despite the ten premierships before Penrith’s run being won by clubs with feeders and this year’s grand final being contested by two teams with Queensland Cup feeders, facts that will be lost on everyone, the conveyor belt of junior talent that seems to have girded Penrith’s success is the only thing coveted by every executive. If only we, a collection of deeply mediocre decision makers, could bring all of this under our control, instead of faffing about with those minor league dolts, we could rule the world.
Somehow, simultaneously, every administrator thinks this way without recognising any traces of irony.
To be fairer, Cup has struggled to hold up its end of the bargain. Ezra Mam would have been Ezra Mam whether he played NRL U20s, QCup or another format. So would Selwyn Cobbo, Alofiana Khan-Pereira and Taine Tuapiki. Perhaps the less likely to have suceeded - your Tristan Hopes, Lachlan Hubners, Trai Fullers, Solomona Faataapes, even Jamal Fogartys - needed something more like QCup to become the players they are but these are not Nicho Hynes, Harry Grant, Tino Faasuamaleaui, Ryan Papenhuyzen and Justin Olam, which is but a sampling of famous players to have also played for the Sunshine Coast Falcons in 2019.
What the new world will loook like is not clear2. In roughly the span of a week, we found out that the QRL is forming a taskforce to look at Cowboys, Broncos and Titans reserve grade teams entering Queensland Cup3 while the Tigers are likely to link up with the new Perth Bears in parallel with the old North Sydney Bears. To suggest a lack of coordination would be an understatement. One imagines the latter might be on hold pending the former.
Reading between the lines, the QRL is attempting to head off National Reserve Grade by giving the Queensland NRL clubs what they want, which will have to come at the expense of the Queensland statewide clubs losing access to NRL players, losing resources4 and fighting greater competition to survive. The tradeoff is that the statewide clubs won't be relegated to the third tier, showing that history really does repeat after some were already relegated down to the second tier 40 years earlier.
It seems unlikely that fans will be consulted. It also seems unlikely that any consideration might be given to anything like protecting Queensland's rugby league heritage. All that aside, logistically, an 18 team Queensland Cup is an extremely unwieldy structure. We haven’t yet considered where a 20% expansion to the Cup fits in with a 40% expansion to the foreign player quota in England and the two new rosters to furnish the expansion of the NRLM. There will be more labour market turmoil ahead, at the very least.
Even in the worst case scenario of skyrocketing wages for competent players while losing gate receipts, it is likely that most clubs will muddle through in one way or another, relying on pokies or historic fanbases or there being less competition in the regional centres. Some clubs may fall by the wayside: even if the money is there, Townsville does not seem big enough for the Cowboys, Blackhawks and the Young Guns.
On the other hand, the Townsville derby could become a rivalry that puts QCup on a different trajectory. In the same way that the Pride beating the Blackhawks in 2023 was an emotional moment, having something similar - the spurned local team fighting against the NRL goliath - happen twice a year might be the kind of thing that gets Townsvilleans out of the house and perhaps tuning in.
Similarly, if PVL implements all three grades, then the Broncos or Titans or Cowboys or Dolphins could be hosting the Cutters, the Devils or the Seagulls on game day at Suncorp, C-Bus or QCB. This might then be televised to a larger audience than the sickos currently subscribed to Qplus. That two or three dozen opportunities for wider exposure each year might be worth the hit.5
This is a long run trend towards centralisation and homogenisation that the NRL seems intent on, despite no other sport in the world following this trajectory. I reject it reflexively - if anything, the NSW Cup should become more like Queensland Cup, not the other way around - but am also self-aware enough to realise that things I don’t like often end up panning out better than I expected. I don’t think having NRL teams compete against statewide clubs makes sense philosophically but it’s not like anyone cares. A reserve grade Broncos team in the grand final probably sells out Redcliffe, if nothing else.
The only constant is change. In the same way that the Winfield State League never settled on a format between 1985 and 1995, the Queensland Cup from 1996 to 2007 had similar oscillations. The safe harbour of stability provided between 2008 and 2019 was a temporary blip. In some sense, we are reverting to historical mean.
Whether the new world will be “better” than the old, I have no idea. That would depend on what you thought the old world was for. This seems unlikely to impact the pipeline to the Maroons. It will not benefit any of the NRL clubs in the long run, except by pure luck, because when everyone does the same thing, clubs lose any advantage that could be gleaned by doing something different. The incumbents are the ones who will suffer, again, but maybe there’s some comfort to be had.
Season 2025 reviews
Men’s
Bears (15-4-1, +161): Won the premiership, snapped a drought, some recompense for ‘23. No notes.
Devils (15-5, +153): Did not win the grand final but was competitive all year. Some bad juju hanging over from summarily dismissing national title winning coach, Dave Elliott, for the returning Rohan Smith. A very capable team but still has its weaknesses (Sean O’Sullivan).
Blackhawks (14-6, +34): Absolute chokejob at the end there. As the top independent team, the Blackhawks did not have to worry about their best being sucked up by a NRL parent. Still, four losses to finish the season and straight sets exit in the finals is if not unacceptable, then very bad. Lots of work to do for Campese.
Wynnum (13-7, +123): Never looked like a particularly strong team but still managed to sweep up enough wins to get a top four finish and a prelim, with a comparable points difference to the grand finalists. Cobbo provided the Gulls with some neat highlights.
Falcons (12-8, +58): Another season in which the Falcons didn’t quite deliver on the promise, either of their ethos or most of their results. The Falcons have committed to a future in which the Broncos have a very tenuous affiliation with them and while that’s not a death sentence, it does mean having to DIY a team together from A-graders.
Dolphins (11-9, +86): Piss poor regular season by their own standards but managed to pull together in the finals and give Burleigh a real scare. Now-former coach Eric Pride lost back-to-back prelims by a total of three points. The Dolphins will be back, the stories of their demise (made up by me) being entirely premature.
Hunters (11-9, +52): Not a bad season for a team no one expects much from anymore. As usual, the Hunters were highly inconsistent and could blow out teams at home (8-2) while struggling to put away results on the road (3-7). When Paul Aiton cracks that code, watch out.
Jets (10-10, +9): For a club that finished 0-20 just two years ago, we are grading on a curve. Tye Ingebritsen and team managed to put together a decent roster and had them running in the right direction. The .500 percentage belies a team that only had two losses of six or less; if you got on top, you really got on top. They beat up a lot of the bad teams, which is the bare minimum. Rake Oliver Pascoe won the Petero Civoniceva Medal while former Jet Gerome Burns got a medical retirement.
Tigers (9-10-1, -25): Like last year’s premiership hangover, I thought roster decisions and injuries had more bearing on results on a team that still looked like it was playing to the best of its ability. I guess expectations are higher at Coorparoo now. Matt Church still lost his job, with Jim Lenihan coming in for next season. Responsible for two of the best highlights of the season: Tahj Wood and Keagan Russell-Smith.
Magpies (9-11, +92): This team finished the regular season with the most Wins Above Reserve Grade and managed to pair that with a losing record. Make of that what you will. I did not go back after the toilet block incident and may never return to Davies Park as a result.
Tweed (7-13, -26): Dave Penna was on the hotseat, served up a very poor season for a team that used to be competitive not that long ago and got fired.
Cutters (7-13, -89): Not good and last won a game in July, an inexplicable 40 point win over Sunshine Coast. Raydan Burns has a lot about him and Brenton Baira might as well.
Capras (6-14, -146): The reversion to historical mean, after winning finals games in the last two seasons, must hurt but the post-covid golden generation has expired and now its time to rebuild, as best can be done in Rockhampton.
Pride (6-14, -60): A huge underperformance. After making the preliminary final last year and still being favoured by the Cowboys, the Pride could not get out of their own way. Even with Origin players (remember Nanai’s appearances?), they struggled to complete 80 minutes. What started as a weird aberration became the whole season.
Clydesdales (2-16-2, -422): It’s a tough situation and no one expected much out of the Clydesdales and they met that expectation. The Walker Brothers imminent arrival should help signings and therefore help improve the results. If it does not, then what is the point of the circus?
Women’s
Tigers (11-0, +184): Perfect season capped off with a premiership. No notes.
Magpies (9-2, +138): Despite being one of the better teams, losing only to the unstoppable Tigers and the Jets, Souths Logan choked away their preliminary final against Burleigh. Shades of 2023. For a club with a storied history in the women’s game, one wonders when the breakthrough will come.
Bears (6-4-1, +86): Took a few games to figure out who they were but eventually shuffled through the rotations to land on a spine combination that worked well enough to get into the grand final and score first but got no further.
Jets (6-4-1, -4): For a new program, the Jets delivered the results, even if it was in an unsustainble fashion. The side seems talented enough, if lacking in polish and experience.
Pride (6-5, +32): As with their men’s team, I had expected the Cowboys-supported Pride to dominate the competition and they barely won more games than they lost. Jenni-Sue Hoepper was an aggressive bonus and played her rugby league swansong.
Devils (5-5-1, +42): Snuck in to the finals and looked very much like it once the real stuff began. A bit of a drop off from where they were last season (the grand final) but the talent distribution across the competition is noticeably different.
Falcons (5-5-1, +16): I thought the Falcons looked good enough when I watched them but the results didn’t quite get there in what was a cutthroat top six. Larissa Crummer finished the competition’s top point scorer and I think she’s got something to offer the sport if she wants to continue her transition from soccer. Notionally being the Broncos’ feeder didn’t seem to make much difference, with several Broncos playing elsewhere.
Clydesdales (5-6, -14): The Clydesdales-Falcons game might have been the only full Clydesdales game I watched of either side of the program all year. Let’s chalk this one up as not so bad given the harvest of their best players to the NRLW.
Wynnum (4-7, -60): A strikingly disappointing season for a club I expected to be in the mix of finals places and not two wins behind. Wynnum’s season never really got going. The losses came in weird spots and frequently. Not enough beef upfront.
Mackay (3-7-1, -44): A rough fall from grace for our defending premiers but with the North Queensland talent now distributed across two teams, and soon to be three (?), the Cutters will struggle for the same structural reasons as the men’s team.
Tweed (2-7-2, -112): Tweed have really struggled over the last couple of years but can at least be pleased they effectively won three games in total, beating the Cutters and Wynnum in the Flockbuster and drawing with the Capras and Falcons.
Capras (0-10-1, -264): Some room for improvement. Didn’t lose the spoon bowl, still got the spoon.
No shade, I just have stuff to do. I can’t completely ignore all of my responsibilities for a day. That’s not even going to happen on Sunday.
Here’s what the taskforce could come up with:
Format 0: status quo
Format 1: add NRL reserve grade teams, proceed with 18 team QCup (statewide competitions as well? NRL clubs chip in?)
Format 2: National Reserve Grade implemented
Option A: NRG and third tier 15-team QCup
Option B: NRG and North Queensland goes back to district footy with the Foley Shield as the main event, while South Queensland forms a Super League. Variation i) The current Cup teams form a 10 team Super League. Variation ii) The ~40 Cup clubs and A-grade clubs form a three tier, 14 team pro-rel structure. Variation iii) the ~70 Cup, junior and senior A-grade clubs in SEQ form a six tier, 12 team pro-rel structure.
No commentary has been provided for the other statewide competitions.
Local footy thrives on: being local, being cheap, seeing rising stars, seeing has-been veterans and connection to community. Some combination of those factors is what gets people through the gates. Knock out several legs and you'll see the edifice start to wobble.
Bearing in mind that Kayo has all of my expressed and revealed preferences on file and still decides to hide minor league RL behind cricket and AFL offerings in the UX - I’m not going to start watching AFLW, IPL or UFC, you freaks - which begs the question how many people might stumble upon that.