After 19 rounds of the Hostplus Cup season, teams can now be placed into three categories: Those who are fine tuning for finals, those who are still fighting for a top eight spot and those who are playing spoiler.
The Brisbane Tigers find themselves battling for an elusive top eight position, while the Tweed Seagulls are blooding their next generation, hoping to sully their opposition’s finals aspirations in their remaining matches of the season.
The Tweed Seagulls have had the wood over the Tigers historically, winning 22 of the 41 matches played between the two.
However, the Tigers have won five of the last six games against the Seagulls when playing at home, with Totally Workwear Stadium being a dangerous habitat for the avians.
The Tigers have begun to find consistency in the last two months of the season, except for their Round 18 thrashing at the hands of the Burleigh Bears.
Conversely, the Seagulls have found themselves resoundingly in the loser’s circle in the past two months, despite their wealth of young talent.
Luckily for Tweed, they’re boosted this weekend by the return of fullback phenom Keano Kini, who begins his return to the NRL following a serious neck injury that has sidelined him since late March.
Kini has bittersweet memories when it comes to playing the Brisbane Tigers, having won the Duncan Hall medal with the Burleigh Bears in 2023, despite losing the Grand Final 22-18.
In addition to Kini, the Seagulls will be hoping for yet another impactful performance from their prodigious forward, Cooper Bai.
Standing at 6’4” and weighing 93 kilos, Bai’s imposing physicality is already seeing him dominate forward packs decades his senior, having scored four tries in five matches and averaging 155 run metres a game.
For the Tigers, their newfound consistency is welcomed, though it hasn’t been enough to rid them of finals anxiety, with the Orange and Black sitting one point outside of eight just behind the PNG Hunters.
After their hard-fought win against the Cutters in country week, the Tigers return to the big city with a favourable draw to finish the season.
They can ill afford a loss in their remaining three matches and will look to their middles to lay a platform for the attacking spark of Tahj Wood and Josh Smith.
The imposing duo of starter Josiah Pahulu and bench forward Jack Natapu will look to usurp Cooper Bai and Tuki Simpkins in what promises to be an enthralling battle in the middle.
Catch all the action from this weekend’s broadcasted match live and free via Qplus.tv, Kayo or 9Now!
