Wide Bay claim inaugural Frank Fisher Cup

The Wide Bay Stingrays have taken out the inaugural Frank Fisher Cup, defeating the Sunshine Coast Bunyas 18-10 at Cherbourg on Sunday.

The carnival named in honour of South Burnett great Frank Fisher was part of a week-long initiative to bring communities together in the Central Region and strengthen the reconciliation journey.

After nail-biting finishes to both qualifying fixtures on Saturday, Sunshine Coast pipping South West 22-16 and Wide Bay edging out Central Queensland 22-18, the stage was set for a thrilling Cup final at Jack O'Chin Oval.

After 10 tough, opening minutes, Sunshine Coast were first to trouble the scorers - Fredrick Cobbo craftily fending away defenders before offloading to Errol Simpson who successfully backed himself and ran 30 metres to open the affair.

The Bunyas were on the attack again seven minutes later, swiftly moving the ball from left to right to gift right flanker Jai Turnbull a four-pointer and put the Coast in a box-seat leading 10-0.

The Stingrays finally found some rhythm with just over five minutes until the break and scored on the right wing through Steven Langton.

In the following set, Wide Bay were in again ... Josiah Alberts plucking a ball destined for the in-goal out of the air and diving over to keep them within a sniff.

Just seconds out from the halftime hooter, more points came for the Stingrays with Josh Tanner providing a perfectly-timed offload to his cousin Nick - resulting in a 14-10 lead at the break.

An error-riddled second half saw only one try scored through Barwoo Fisher to extend the Stingrays' lead out to the eventual winning margin, 18-10.

Earlier, Central Queensland proved successful in claiming the plate after narrowly losing out to the premiers 22-18 on Saturday.

A second half shutout of South West including a double from Gabriel Hamson ensured the Barramundis lifted the silverware at the final siren.

The week-long event was supported by the Arthur Beetson Foundation, Preston Campbell Foundation, Queensland Police Service, Struddys and FOGS' ARTIE Academy.

Cup final: Wide Bay Stingrays 18 (Barwoo Fisher, Josiah Alberts, Nicholas Tanner, Steven Langton tries; Elwyn Fewquandie goal) defeated Sunshine Coast Bunyas 10 (Errol Simpson, Jai Turnbull tries; David Oakes goal)

Plate final: Central Queensland Barramundis 28 (Gabriel Hamson 2, Kyle Solomon, Dan Randall, William Munns tries; Emilio Munns 3, Jason Field goals) defeated South West Emus 12 (Braydon Law, Gavin Hazel tries; Jacob Lingwoodock 2 goals)