The Burleigh Bears have qualified for the Hostplus Cup and BMD Premiership grand finals after an extraordinary weekend of rugby league across Queensland’s premier male and female competitions.
In the Hostplus Cup, the Redcliffe Dolphins appeared to have the Bears’ measure in Saturday’s preliminary final after leading 16-6 with seven minutes remaining.
But in front of a parochial home crowd at UAA Park, the Bears refused to surrender as Creedence Toia and Takitau Mapapalangi crossed for late tries to break the hearts of the Dolphins.
Josh Rogers landed both conversions to steal a stunning 18-16 win for the Gold Coast club.
Just 24 hours later, those scenes were replicated at Bishop Park, where a bumper Sunday afternoon crowd packed into the Nundah ground for the clash between the Norths Devils and Wynnum Manly Seagulls.
This time it was the Devils who delivered the ‘great escape’, coming from two points down inside the dying minutes to snatch an 18-16 win following Manase Kaho’s diving heroics in the right corner.
Remarkably, there was one final twist in the final seconds as the Seagulls took a shot at a two-point field goal, which very nearly resulted in a try to Wynnum’s Selwyn Cobbo, who chased the bouncing ball into the in-goal area.
Norths will now play Burleigh in next Saturday’s grand final at Kayo Stadium, with Rohan Smith’s Devils just 80 minutes away from a fourth premiership in five years.
The Bears will be out to spoil that party and will carry a groundswell of club support into the weekend after their BMD Premiership team upset the Souths Logan Magpies today.
Moana Cook and Deleni Paitai both crossed twice for the Bears in their 24-12 win over the Magpies.
Burleigh’s grand final opponent will be the Brisbane Tigers, who prevailed 20-10 against a plucky Northern Pride in Saturday’s first preliminary final.
The undefeated Tigers led 20-4 at half-time following tries from India Seeto, Courtney Robinson, Aleksandra Tunufai and Kelsey Parkin.
QRL Grand Final Day – Saturday, September 27, Kayo Stadium
10.10am: XXXX City v Country (Women)
12noon: XXXX City v Country (Men)
2.05pm: BMD Premiership – Brisbane Tigers v Burleigh Bears
4.05pm: Hostplus Cup – Burleigh Bears v Norths Devils
Broadcast:
- Exclusively live on Fox League and Kayo – Hostplus Cup and BMD Premiership
- Streamed live and free, exclusively on Qplus.tv – XXXX City v Country women’s and men’s
Ticketing:
- Available now,
- General Admission, from $10 for juniors and $25 for adults
