The Brisbane Tigers and Souths Logan Magpies enter the preliminary finals on the heels of a well earned week off, while the Northern Pride and Burleigh Bears find themselves with house money following their victories in the first week of finals.
After finishing their season undefeated, the Brisbane Tigers will host the Northern Pride this Saturday as they look to extend their winning streak to 12 games in 2025.
The Northern Pride have emerged as a dark horse threat for the 2025 premiership, winning three of their last four matches and dispatching the Ipswich Jets in the first week of finals.
The Pride’s halves duo of Jenni-Sue Hopper and Jairel-Ellen Martin-Savage stood tall for their side, scoring or assisting four tries between them.
Nadia Windleborn at hooker was another star for the Pride, with the Queensland Under 19 co-captain running for over 100 metres and completing 28 tackles in a staunch performance.
The Pride will make sure to come out with plenty of energy early, with many of the Tigers’ stars backing up from Thursday’s NRL Schoolgirl Cup.
The likes of Namoe Gesa, Evelyn Roberts and Enah Desic all starred in Marsden State High School’s victory – though it remains to be seen how much energy their victory took from them ahead of this week’s preliminary finals.
Despite this, the Tigers’ imposing forward pack remained unburdened by mid-week footy, with Narikah Orchard, India Seeto and Kayleen Takai all set to fire in their most important game of the season.
The next day will see the Souths Logan Magpies hosting the Burleigh Bears at Davies Park.
Burleigh enter this bout flying high after their demolition job of the Norths Devils the weekend prior, winning 44-6 at home.
Deleni Paitai starred for the Bears, with the prodigious centre scoring twice and running for over 170 metres in a brilliant performance.
It was a family affair for the Bears, with Deleni’s sister, Memory, scoring one try and setting up another two at five-eighth.
Burleigh’s sharp-shooting front-rower Zara Canfield led all forwards in metres gained while slotting five conversions from her six attempts.
Six Burleigh forwards ran for more than 100 metres, setting up a great battle against an imposing Magpies forward pack.
Whether it’s Joeannah Naime and April Ngatupuna in the middle or Harlem Walker and Keira Rangi on the edge, the Magpies possess hard running bodies all throughout their pack.
However, it’s out wide where the Magpies are most dangerous.
Tori Groves Little and Sienna Ibrahim have proved clinical near the line, with Groves Little emerging as one of the competition’s premier tackle busters.
To catch all the action from this weekend’s preliminary finals, tune into Qplus.tv for live and on demand coverage.
To secure your tickets to QRL Grand Final day, click the link here.
