Towering Top Two: Falcons & Dolphins

With two rounds to go in the Hostplus Cup, the Sunshine Coast Falcons look to secure their first ever minor premiership, while the Redcliffe Dolphins stay in hot pursuit. 

The Falcons’ road to the minor premiership may be tougher than expected. While they will be heavily favoured to overcome the PNG Hunters, their final challenge comes against the fifth placed Jets, who recently stunned the second placed Dolphins. 

A single slip up from the Falcons could open the door for the Dolphins to claim their seventh minor premiership, with Redcliffe facing a much more favourable run home. They will take on the 13th placed Seagulls before finishing the regular season against the 14th placed Clydesdales. 

It’s been a year of momentum for the Falcons, who went through a purple patch of ten consecutive wins early in the season. While they lost their way through July, they have found their form again in the back end of the season, scoring a minimum of 32 points in each of their past three games.

The Falcons’ style of footy has seen them consistently find points across the park, with their ability to maintain pressure and execute in attack making them one of the competition’s most consistent sides. While the Falcons are packed with quality across the park, their strength comes from their collective effort rather than relying on one standout player. 

However, defensively, Sam Burns has been a key leader, boasting an impressive 96% tackle efficiency while leading the club’s tackle count. His consistency in defence has played a major role in making the Falcons one of the competition’s toughest sides to break down.

It’s been a year of attacking onslaught from the Dolphins, with a backline boasting several established NRL players. However, throughout the year, they have suffered unexpected losses to teams further along the ladder.

While sitting comfortably amongst the top three teams across many attacking statistics, the flipped side of the coin shows the Dolphins also lead the competition in errors. These costly mistakes have previously seen mismatched teams get on top of them. The Dolphins, no doubt have been meticulously working to amend previous mistakes that may damage them in a finals sprint. 

While the Falcons remain favourites thanks to their consistent brand of football, if these two teams meet in the final, it is sure to be a high scoring and entertaining affair.