Round 12 of the Hostplus Cup is here and we are about to turn into the straight for the second half of the season.
This week on the feature round broadcast match will be the “Rumble on Sand”, with the Sunshine Coast Falcons against premiers the Burleigh Bears.
The Sunshine Coast have been the surprise of the season; sitting up the top in first with nine wins, the Falcons were in eighth this time last year with four wins.
The Falcons have made some massive gains and have won nine games in a row. The Bears have the overall head to head advantage with 17 wins to 11 by the Falcons.
The Falcons have become the ultimate team; they don’t lead the Hostplus Cup in any team metric or individual metric, but sit up the top of the table.
They’re doing it without an NRL affiliate or NRL players. They’re the Mighty Ducks of the Hostplus Cup.
Sam Burns tackles himself to physical exhaustion every week and Josh Billing’s has become a scoring machine on the left-hand side, chasing anything and anyone that may put him in a hole.
Billing’s has scored an incredible nine tries in eight games for the Falcons and has become a dangerous edge weapon. He might be the poster boy for improvement having scored one try in 2025.
Billing’s is the competition’s leading forward for getting the ball across the line, however he won’t play this weekend due to a two-match suspension.
Burns is hot on the tail of the competition’s leading defender Pride’s Jack Boyling. He has amassed 340 tackles at the effective rate of nearly 96%.
The Falcons are coming off an impressive win over the Norths Devils that showed all their fighting skills and persistence.
Even when the situation is not ideal the Falcons hang in there and get the outcome. Against the Devils, the Falcons attacked left, and it brought results.
At 14-0 the Falcons let the Devils score just before half time and at 14-6 the nature of a game at half time can change. The Devils scored first just after half time and 14-0 became 14-12.
The Falcons then set about their work to score the next three tries and record a 32-12 win.
Consistency has become the Bears’ greeting card they leave, and unfortunately for the Falcons who may face a team on the rebound, Burleigh had their cave invaded last week by the Magpies.
The Bears started slowly with the Magpies scoring the first three tries; it was poor goal line defence that led to Callum Eggerling diving over. Floyd Aubrey sliced through on the Bears left and Aublix Tawha showed enthusiasm to chase a kick and score under the posts.
The Bears settled and went about their work led by Phillip Coates. Coates made his NRL debut in Magic Round and has come back to Cup a better player.
A big part of Coates’ performance is linked to the Bears’ Guy Hamiliton closing in on 200 Cup games. You get the feeling Hamiliton is enjoying his young outside back sweating on his passes.
The Bears run around scrum move for Coates to score was simply breathtaking.
Coates scored three tries and made four-line breaks, all by being patient and waiting for his chance.
The Bears’ bench was the secret sauce last week with hooker Blake Mozer coming back from a broken jaw suffered against the Cowboys.
Mozer was an attacking spark that shone brightly. He played 40 minutes and scored a great try just after half time.
Running four times for 70 metres, Mozer oozed class no more than his try; taking advantage of some lazy split marker work, Mozer spotted them and set off on the 15-metre run to the line, beating two other Magpies and scoring.
It showed his attacking vision and quick response to any situation that may present itself.
The Bears’ other bench nuclear weapon is two game star Tupou Francis. The Broncos and Bears unleased Francis against the Cutters and he hasn’t looked even slightly out of place in the Hostplus Cup.
Against the Cutters, his play the balls created scoring chances for the Bears, whose coach Luke Burt showed plenty of faith on debut to put him back on with seven to go.
Francis went back on and contributed to the Bears 14-13 win with Hamilton scoring after a Francis run to get the Bears a one point win.
The ‘Francis factor’ is there to see with the young middle having a huge impact on the Bears.
In the last two games the Bears are positive 19 points with him on the field and negative 27 when Francis is off the field.
Francis has made 45 tackles and missed zero in his first two games.
It’s not the distance of his runs that should gain attention but the placement and play the ball. Francis gets between defenders with his skip run and then gets a play the ball to behold.
Sunday's feature match, presented by National Storage, will be broadcast live and free on Qplus.tv, Kayo and 9Now.
