The big scary Burleigh Bears are on the prowl and the Western Mustangs are going to have to be on their game this week.
The Bears moved back to first with the win over the Redcliffe Dolphins at the weekend.
The Bears commanding 46-12 win over the Dolphins while the Mustangs are at the other end of a 42-6 loss to the Blackhawks.
The Bears treated the Dolphins like a picnic goer that wandered in to their national park and Jayden Campbell ate all their sandwiches.
What a weapon!' - Jayden Campbell
Campbell scored three tries and kicked four goals in the Bears win. Campbell now has 16 tries for the season and 131 points.
While the Mustangs will be trying to correct 43% of the ball and taking 67 minutes to get a try.
That makes any day a hard day.
Mustangs’ coach Eugene Sedden was positive about his team’s resilience on show against the Blackhawks.
“We didn’t drop out heads and that can be easy to do and we have certainly improved that aspect of our football from 12 months ago.
“At the end of our game against Townsville their coach said that he was really impressed with Blake Cullen our front rower.
“Blake is our captain and is going really well, individually he is up there every week.”
Match: Clydesdales v Bears
Round 20 -
home Team
Clydesdales
away Team
Bears
Venue: Gold Park, Toowoomba
The Dolphins and Tigers come together and both will be doing plenty of self-reflection this week and wondering how to get out of the naughty corner.
The Dolphins lost 46-12 to the Bears and the Tigers lost 38-12 to the Wynnum Seagulls. Maybe this game will be 12 all draw?
The Tigers were starving and 43% of the ball was never going to satisfy them while the Dolphins took until nearly half time to score and then didn’t score again until the 58th minute.
The Bears scored five times in that space.
Dolphins coach Andrew Wynard took some positives out of the Bears game.
“The score might not suggest it but our pack was very good against the Bears,”
“The Bears attacked us and got momentum down short sides and once you give the Bears energy it’s hard to get it back.”
“It will be physical against the Tigers that’s what we expect.”
Match: Dolphins v Tigers
Round 20 -
home Team
Dolphins
away Team
Tigers
Venue: Moreton Daily Stadium, Redcliffe
The Blackhawks flew in and attacked the poor Mustangs and at the controls was dynamic fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow who scored two tries before half time. The Blackhawks have now won seven games in a row.
Adam Cook is the HDC leading points-scorer with 154 points before this game and now you can add another 14 to be sitting on 168.
The Blackhawks had 57% of the ball and 9 line breaks with 55 tackle breaks.
Trying to plot the demise of the Blackhawks is the Capras this week, The Capras pushed the Falcons but came up just short 22-16.
Harrison McIndoe scored two tries for the Central Queensland team. The Capras did a lot right with 53% of the ball but they just missed vital tackles when they had to repel the Blackhawks.
Match: Capras v Blackhawks
Round 20 -
home Team
Capras
away Team
Blackhawks
Venue: Browne Park, Rockhampton
It’s been two weeks since the Pride came down to the South East Corner and found themselves at Davies Park.
The Pride lost 30-12 to the Magpies and will want to turn that around this week at home. The Pride started well against the Magpies but couldn’t keep it going and the Magpies came home pecking anyone and everyone.
The Devils had a day out at the expense of Ipswich two weeks ago. The Devils had the ball and didn’t let it go and the Jets were powerless to stop the onslaught.
Four first half Devils’ tries makes it hard.
Michael McGrath scored a try and ended the round with 14 tries for the season.
Match: Pride v Devils
Round 20 -
home Team
Pride
away Team
Devils
Venue: Barlow Park, Cairns
The Falcons showed plenty of resilience against the Capras to win with only 48% of the ball it could have been a game that slipped away but showing some finals form the Falcons got there and recorded their fourth straight win and their top four spot.
Tom Dwan is playing well for the Falcons and will be on the Cutters radar this week. Dwan has scored 13 tries this season and contributed 94 points to the Falcons total.
The Cutters are coming off a win over Tweed before the break and will be positive and full of energy.
The Cutters wouldn’t let the Tweed have the ball and strangled them out of the game with 60% of the ball.
While the Falcons might be talking about Cutters captain and half Brendon White.
Match: Cutters v Falcons
Round 20 -
home Team
Cutters
away Team
Falcons
Venue: BB Print Stadium, Mackay
None of the HDC players were born in 1985 but once Souths v Wynnum would have had a dozen Origin and Test players and brought people to Lang Park like marching ants.
Wynnum is coming off a good win over Easts 38-12. While Souths had a win over the Pride.
Colin Scott won’t be playing but Wynnum’s number one Shannon Gardiner brings the ball back for the Seagulls and scored in the Seagulls win over the Tigers.
While Souths probably won’t have Mal Meninga this time but Thane Kellermeyer might cause the Seagulls some trouble with his running game.
Wynnum have won five straight games now and are running towards finals.
Seagulls coach Joe O’Callagan.
“When we played them last time Souths gave us a really good game and it took us 60 minutes to get the job done.
“Cruise Ten can cause problems and I really like their centre Thane Kellermeyer.”
“This week is a chance for us to have all our players on the field which we haven’t been able to do for a while and just work on combinations.”
Match: WM Seagulls v Magpies
Round 20 -
home Team
WM Seagulls
away Team
Magpies
Venue: BMD Kougari Oval, Brisbane
The Jets found a loss at Bishop Park while the Tweed found misery at home against the Cutters.
Both teams have had the week off so some soul searching has happened and now it’s time for the Jets to finish the season with a bang.
The Jets let teams score in clumps and then it is too hard to peg them back. Against Norths the Devils scored four times in the first 17 minutes. The Jets need to regroup better.
The Tweed are one point outside the 8 and need a win to make sure the Tigers don’t pull away from them. Tweed have beaten the Jets the last two times they have played so they will be confident they can travel to Ipswich and get the job done again.
Jets coach Brendon Marshall wasn’t too sure what the week would bring for the Jets.
“It’s hard to know the impact of the week off at this stage, we trained last Tuesday and then had the whole week off and didn’t play.”
“So we will get back on Tuesday and prepare for Tweed.
“Tweed are a team that play the whole 70 minutes and at this stage we struggle so this is going to be a hard game and one we need to commit to for the whole game.”
Match: Jets v Seagulls
Round 20 -
home Team
Jets
away Team
Seagulls
Venue: North Ipswich Reserve, Ipswich