Mal Meninga Cup Grand Final day is one of the great days on the Queensland Rugby League calendar, and on Saturday at Kayo Stadium two great nurseries of Queensland talent will go head-to-head for the ultimate prize.
The Redcliffe Dolphins and Burleigh Bears; the last three Mal Meninga Cup Grand Finals have involved either the Bears or Dolphins and now they come together in a match made in Under 19 Rugby League heaven.
The best of the future Dolphins vs the best of the future Broncos.
No one knows grand finals like Mal Meninga - the man the competition is named after - the NRL Immortal played in Grand Finals for Souths Magpies in 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984 and 1985 then at the Raiders in 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1994.
Eleven Grand Finals for five wins. Meninga dominated finals for 15 years.
From 1979 to 1994 He would play in 32 finals games and win 22.
Of Meninga’s 32 finals games it would only be six that he wouldn’t contribute points.
He scored 177 points in finals with 13 tries and 65 goals (five tries worth three points.)
That’s the Meninga legacy, when it’s finals you must contribute, and no one brought more to the finals table than the big Magpie and Raider when it mattered most.
“Congratulations to all teams who participated in season 2025,” Meninga said.
“I thank all of those who played integral parts in each of the team’s preparation and performance.
“It’s two of our biggest junior clubs running onto the field in the final of the Mal Meninga Cup.
“I know all players will be ready to play so all the best. May the game be played in the right spirit and both teams thrive.”
Whose contribution will we be talking about on Saturday?
Who is going to give a Mal Meninga finals performance?
Will it be the Bears big outside backs or will it be the Dolphins forwards?
The Dolphins have a 24-hour preparation head start and are playing at home and the Bears have never won a Mal Meninga title, losing the Grand Final last year.
The last time they played each other it was the Dolphins 30-20 at Kayo.
The key to the Bears and Dolphins wins in the preliminary finals were to start fast and leave their opposition wondering what just happened.
The Dolphins 34-4 lead proved unassailable, though the Cutters never gave up on creating a miracle comeback.
In the middle of the field Carter Ford, Cody Starr and Patrick Kailahi were superhuman, with their big metreage and quick play the balls integral to the Dolphins forward momentum.
Callum Bowles in the centres just had to stay out and dine out on the service he was getting- he finished with a try and 142 metres for the Dolphins.
The Bears have been firing as the season enters the business end, scoring seventy-eight points while only conceding twenty-six in the first fortnight of finals.
Burleigh’s right-side second rower Jett Bryce will be taking this Grand Final personally.
Bryce scored for the Bears in the 2024 Grand Final loss to the Tweed Seagulls, and has been playing like a man possessed this year.
He scored a cracking try on the right-hand side against Tweed, spearing through the Seagulls defence and leaving last year’s premiers heartbroken.
Take note of the Bryce try; he takes a hard run and cops a big jolting hit as he brings it out for the Bears.
Bryce recovers and by the time the Bears are in good ball attacking area, he’s there loaded on the right ready to go.
For the second week in a row Bryce’s other second row partner Kilarney Lavender was just as damaging.
Scoring two tries and making 163 metres makes it tough to fault the bouldering second-rower.
If the Dolphins shut down Lavender and Bryce the big outside backs of Bailey Trew, Antonio Verhoeven, Philiip Coates, Dilsharne Tonihi and fullback Saxon Innes will be ling up to bring the ball back and finish off great work.
In last year’s Grand Final Saxon Innes was on the wing for the Bears, but this year he has made the fullback spot his own.
The Bears strike out wide is scary.
They have a combined for 37 tries in 11 games.
Trew, Verhoeven, Coates, Innes and Tonihi just need a modicum of space and they will score.
This is a Grand Final that will enter Mal Meninga Cup folklore.
The only way to watch the much anticipated Grand Final is via QPlus.TV - with monthly access starting for less than $2.50 a week.
