The Jets and Pride have played some epic battles in their short history; The Jets beat the Pride 34-16 in the finals in 2008, in 2011 the Pride knocked the Jets out of the finals by winning 30-6 and in 2010 the Ipswich Jets completed one of its greatest ever comebacks - down 16-0 at half time the Ipswich Jets came back to win 22-16.
Round 8 2014 produced another grand chapter of comebacks when the Ipswich Jets found themselves down 18-0 after 30 minutes.
Wes Conlon, Brendan Marshall and Marmin Barba set about righting the wrongs of the first half and saw the Jets home 24-18 in another stunning Jets’ comeback.
The Jets knocked the Pride out in 2015 racking up 50 and who can forget Carl Webb smashing through the whole Jets’ team to score.
Something is always happening when these two meet.
Will this round have a David Fifita narrative?
In 2025, the Pride are on a six-game losing streak but they have won the last five against the Jets and the last three at Ipswich so there is hope for the men from North Queensland.
The Jets have had their best start to a season and are slowly re-writing all the negative records from the last seven years of pain of misery.
It’s the first time since 2015 the Jets have won four of their first five games.
Their first win at Wynnum since 2016 was ticked off last round as the Jets defensive effort was resolute.
Keeping a side with a Jock Madden to six points is always a great effort.
Ipswich have used the age-old formula to win games; they are tackling themselves to a standstill and taking the chances in attack when they present themselves.
The Jets are starting games well, they have scored seven tries in the first 20 minutes of their five games compared to five from the opposition.
Which is allowing them to start with momentum.
They are winning the first halves of their game 70-58.
It’s all about starting well for the Jets.
The Jets strength in the first five weeks has been everyone staying in their lane.
From there the Jets can move the ball and score tries particularly down the right-hand side where they have scored 47 percent of their tries.
Coming off the bye the Pride have had a chance to be well rested and reset what they are doing in 2025.
The last time the Pride played, they started well through Tom Duffy and led 22-6 at half time but from there it all fell apart, as they lost 28-26 to the Wynnum Manly Seagulls.
The Pride have young halves in Zac Herdegen and Duffy.
Duffy is vital to everything the Pride do, he’s played NRL this year for the Cowboys and the Pride need him to find his 2024 Hostplus Cup form expeditiously.
Duffy was exceptional last year scoring 216 points and leading the Hostplus Cup with 33 try assists.
The other part of the Pride’s jigsaw is Jamal Shibasaki.
The edge weapon has been moved to the Pride this season after a great year last year with the Cutters and he hasn’t found his stride yet.
Shibasaki has won every award you can win up to now, with Man of the match in the Blackhawks Colts Grand Final win in 2023 with two tries, Mal Meninga Cup player of the year in 2023 and NRL debut in 2024.
It won’t be long before he is firing.
He is no stranger to Ipswich having scored a try against the Jets in the Meninga finals in 2023 at Ipswich.
Duffy can be the key to unlocking the Shibasaki mystery.
If they can work together then it can be damage and red flashing lights for the Jets.
The Jets will be celebrating two milestones this week with Ollie Pascoe playing his 50th Hostplus Cup game and Julian Christian playing his 50th Hostplus Cup game for the Jets.
