While our Premier Women and Colts go from strength to strength, our Premier Men’s final’s fate is hanging by a thread.
PREMIER MEN
The opposition: Norths are a team on the rise. They’ve had a strong season so far. They are full of talent and attacking potential - they can score from anywhere on the field. We absolutely threw away a golden opportunity to beat them in Round 1. Although we let that one go, we go into this game knowing we can match them and full of belief about our have the capability to get the job done.
The challenge: North's backs are a handful. Stopping their fast running, counter attacking style is a priority for us.
Shuffling the magnets: This week we have a family connection up front with the Matiewai brothers starting in the front row.
Ones to watch: Kairus Booth and Willie Rua are ones to keep an eye on this weekend.
The focus: We simply have to control possession and avoid turnovers. Those kinds of errors play into North’s counter-attacking skills.
Final word: If we drop another one, our premiership defence is done and dusted. We simply must win. Our future is in our hands.
- Sean Hedger
PREMIER WOMEN
The Opposition: Norths have been on the improve in 2026 and are currently placed a lot higher than they’ve finished in previous years. They are trying to keep a squad together to get a bit of consistency and will become a bit of a force to be reckoned with in the future.
The Opposition: It's easy to become complacent and fall into a bit of a lull when you're travelling pretty well. And at the moment, Norths is not a top four team so it's easy to take these sorts of games for granted. For us, it's about ensuring that we stick to our process and approach every game like it's meaningful because even if we view it as a game that we may potentially win pretty easily, it's an opportunity for us to find tune our game plans and implement some new things before finals.
Shuffling the magnets: The Reds have a mandatory stand down period so we won’t get our Reds players back this week but hopefully we’ll have some of them back over the next few weeks.
Ones to watch: This time of year experience matters and I think of the likes of Mahlia Snowden, Elisha Godsiff and Michelle Curry. Also, a couple of our game drivers in Cobie-Jane Morgan and Immy Hei, who have been our nine and ten for most of the season. An unsung hero in the group is Zara Colless. Though work has impacted her availability with her full-time position at the Gold Coast Suns, whenever she’s fronted for us, it's really clear how important she is in terms of driving our team around the park and putting people in the right positions.
The focus: Norths are a young group so though there’s not a lot of experience but they are energetic which can prove problematic if you allow them to play themselves back into the game and build their confidence. The main thing for us is to try and dominate things and get on top of them, otherwise we're in for a pretty tough challenge. We want to stamp our mark on the game from the get-go and we’ve been doing that really well most weeks.
Final word: We're not at finals yet so it's all about securing a top two finish and building confidence across our whole group to make sure that we go into finals with a bit of momentum behind us.
- With Setu Naseri
COLTS 1
The Opposition: The ladder position doesn't reflect how good a side they are. They haven't accumulated as many competition points as they would like to, but they've been in every game. They are a very tough, formidable outfit and we're going to have to be at our very best and have a positive mindset this week going into this clash.
The Challenge: Our greatest challenge each week is being better than the week before. That's been our theme all season: we want to be better than we were last week and we put new things in place to try and achieve that. We don't even talk about ladder position and semi-finals, we just focus on a week-to-week basis. It’s a similar mindset to the Fremantle Dockers. When they won 13th straight, they were asked, “How you been so successful?” and they said, “We just focus week to week and have our weekly challenges and that's all we look at”. We are trying to do the same and I think that’s why we are where we are on the ladder.
Shuffling the magnets: We are just finalising our team, but Jonah is off this week, and we may have a 17-year-old making his debut.
Ones to watch: Ed Lyons scored a double last week. He's got plenty of class. The others to watch are our nine and ten - Kobi Nouranrasy and Callum Simpson. They are a formidable partnership. They are very different players but they've come together really well and they're steering our team around. Cal has been playing some of the best rugby I’ve seen him play which has coincided with how our team is going.
The focus: To be better than we were last week. There are still a number of things are we're looking to improving and as long as we have that attitude of improvement, that coincides with constantly wanting to be better.
Final word: If you're coming down to Bond this weekend, make sure to get there by 12.15pm. It’s a great introduction into what rugby is about and you can have a look at a pretty good side run around against some quality opposition. Since we got beaten by Easts in the early rounds, we made a pact that that never happens again. We promised we’d never perform like that again at home.
- With Adam Fahey