With an easing of COVID restrictions this year, Queensland rugby league fans will once again have the chance to watch Queensland’s premier rugby league competition, the Intrust Super Cup.
Here’s why you should go along to a game this season.
The clubs
The Intrust Super Cup is stacked full of historic clubs, many of whom (particularly in the greater Brisbane region) have ambitions of joining the top flight of football.
This competition has deep ties to the community: the old BRL clubs such as Souths, Norths, Redcliffe, Easts, Wynnum Manly and Ipswich; the Northern Pride, Mackay Cutters and Blackhawks in the north; the Sunshine Coast Falcons and the glitter strip’s Burleigh Bears. You’re sure to find a team near you to support.
In terms of club affiliation, there is one major change for the 2021 season, with long-time Broncos affiliate, the Redcliffe Dolphins agreeing on a deal with NRL club the New Zealand Warriors, who have pulled out of the Canterbury Cup competition.
The grounds
If you go along to watch an Intrust Super Cup match, chances are, you will be attending one of Queensland’s historic football grounds.
The oldest of these is Davies Park, home to the Souths Logan Magpies, in Brisbane’s West End, which has hosted representative matches since 1909.
Not too much younger in historical terms is Langlands Park in Stones Corner, home of the newly-rebranded Brisbane Tigers (formerly Easts). This ground has hosted footy since World War I.
Over to the west, North Ipswich Reserve, host of the 2013 Intrust Super Cup grand final, has been the home of Ipswich footy since 1909, and is a fulfilling day trip for Brisbane footy fans.
Stadium Mackay was renovated in 2011, and boasts an incredible capacity of 12,000. It has played host to several NRL games.
Dolphin Oval in Redcliffe is unsurpassed in terms of state-of-the-art footballing infrastructure, also playing host to the A-League team Brisbane Roar in summer months.
Dolphin Oval hosts a Brisbane Roar A-League game (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Sunshine Coast Stadium became a hub for the Melbourne Storm as their home-away-from-home in the 2020 NRL season, and also boasts a capacity of 12,000.
Other grounds include Barlow Park in Cairns, the infamous Bishop (Bashup) Park in suburban Nundah, and Kougari Oval in Brisbane’s bayside.
The players
The Intrust Super Cup is one of the highest quality rugby league competitions in the world, behind only the National Rugby League and Super League competitions, and rivalling the Canterbury Cup in New South Wales.
Each year sees international players, Test players and as-yet-unearthed stars of the future grace the competition (looking at you Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Greg Inglis and Cooper Cronk from Norths Devils!).
The big signing for this season is notorious cross-coder Karmichael Hunt, who seems to be thinking about life after footy with his latest move, which sees him return to where it all began at the Souths Logan Magpies.
Other big signings for the 2021 season include former Brisbane Broncos fullback Josh Hoffman and former Dragons prop Patrick Kaufusi, who have both joined the Townsville Blackhawks (and may be sighted in Cowboys colours this season).
Ex-Melbourne Storm player Joe Stimson returns to his former affiliate club the Sunshine Coast Falcons and he is joined by one-game Origin wonder Jarrod Mullen, returning from a four-year ban for using performance-enhancing drugs.
The competition is stacked with Papua New Guinea internationals, including Moses Meninga (Townsville), Nixon Putt (Central Queensland), Richard Pandia (Ipswich), Kurt Baptiste (Sunshine Coast) Luke Page (Burleigh), Stargroth Amean, Ase Boas, Adex Weru, Buttler Morris, Enoch Maki, Wartovo Puara, Terri Wapi, Junior Rau, Brandon Nima, Edwin Ipape and Rhadley Brawa (PNG Hunters).
Tongan halfback Ata Hingano plies his trade with the Mackay Cutters, while Florida native and USA Tomahawks second-rower Joe Eichner plays for the Northern Pride. His teammate from California, Connor Donohue, plays with the Falcons.
The coaches
Former Newcastle Knights and Fiji coach Rick Stone has returned to Burleigh, the team he coached to three premierships.
Ex-Wynumm Manly and Souths Logan Magpies coach Jon Buchanan has moved onto his third club at the Brisbane Tigers.
At Ipswich, 2015 premiership-winning Jets captain Keiron Lander takes over the head coaching gig from Ben Walker and Shane Walker.
Capras coach David Fauimu announced his resignation last month.
Big Daddy
Guest
On a state level it's jobs for the boys. 2019 Mark O' Meley coached NSW under 20 to a win over Qld. No matches in 2020 so what do NSWRL do change the age group to under 19 , drop O' Meley to assistant and Appoint Paul McGregor as head coach. That will do me. !!!!
Max Mayer
Roar Guru
Very sad! Yet another reason why Queensland is the superior sporting state. :silly:
Max Mayer
Roar Guru
I do not! As corrected below, Stimson is currently contracted with Bulldogs
Tim Buck 3
Roar Rookie
Yes I call them Easts but changing to Sydney City did make sense in the new national comp. It is similar to St.George and Illawarra where St.George get a bigger base although there would be some who don’t approve in each case. I would have liked to see Balmain and Wests but I could see the too many Sydney teams angle. The arrogant remark was in memory of eating lemons at the 1975 grand final.
Rellum
Roar Guru
They had better get their act together. The Brisbane Jets clearly have some mates high up at fox because Fox are running a daily puff piece of who the Jets are going to sign. Fox clearly favouring one bid to me is a massive red flag but V'Landy's will probably think that's great.
Matt
Guest
Do you have a source on Stimson being at the Falcons?
Big Daddy
Guest
Even as of today if you look at the NSWRL website all you see is information about SOO, nothing wrong with that but they really need to get their house in order in relation to lower tier comps. Last year nearly all comps were cancelled , I really don't want to see a repeat of that . Not only 2nd tier but all country comps there is no information on what's happening.
mushi
Roar Guru
Last time I booked tickets to a match in QLD Anna made me pay for two weeks accommodation:)
Sammy
Guest
In NSW, we have to drop down to the Ron Massey Cup to get a selection of stand-alone teams that are not aligned with NRl Clubs. The Canterbury Cup is basically NRL reserve grade for the NSW/ACT teams. The Jersey Flegg, SG Ball and Harold Mathews are basically NRL juniors for the NSW/ACT teams. Even the Laurie Daley Cup (U’18s) and Andrew Johns Cup (U’16s) are starting to have NRL branding, eg Northern Rivers Titans, North Coast Bulldogs, MacArthur Tigers, Central Coast Roosters, Hunter Knights, South Coast Dragons, etc. I also like the idea of the four-conference President’s Cup, which is basically a finals series between the winners of the Western NSW, Illawarra, Newcastle and Sydney Central competitions. But I think the Sydney Central winner should come from the “Sydney Shield” rather than the Ron Massey Cup.
matth
Roar Guru
Great little comp the Intrust Super Cup. It has learned to live within it's means and the quality is pretty good, without the slick professionalism of the top tier. A TV game each week and you get to see both the up and comers heading for the NRL and they come up against some hard heads who made their career in the second tier. That give the youngsters a better grounding than just playing under 20's. There is the odd diamond like Fogerty from the Gold Coast that has been overlooked through the age pathways but get there through performance at this level.
matth
Roar Guru
I wonder if Easts and Redcliffe saw this coming which is why the push for an NRL license so they continue as entities of their own.
matth
Roar Guru
That's because the NRL effectively took over the NSWRL and the local reserve grade comp stepped up as feeder clubs. In contrast, while the Broncos joining the NRL turned the QCup into a 2nd tier comp, it was and still is mostly populated by independent clubs that were in existence prior to 1988 (even if not always in the top comp).
criag
Roar Rookie
When Easts changed to Sydney City it made more sense (being called Eastern Suburbs didn’t make much sense in a national comp), and the media actually called them that. Changing to Sydney was definitely a mistake, I think. NO-ONE calls them that, it’s usually The Roosters or Easts. But in fairness, both Balmain and Canterbury changed their names to Sydney in the pre-super league scramble to become the most relevant, though they both wisely changed it back.
Big Daddy
Guest
Telling, I'm sure there is particularly in Newcastle, Central Coast and Illawarra but those clubs that would qualify are a bit concerned about how NSWRL run rugby league in this state. I've got a feeling the NRL would like to control the lot as it would cut out many levels of admin and finance but these guys at state level don't like losing their perks.
Rellum
Roar Guru
If the Magpies get shafted again by Sydney then I am really going to question if I want to keep following the NRL. I don't go to Broncs games now because of who owns them and the QRL comp being gone might be the final straw.
Opposed Session
Roar Rookie
Yeah I was sent this about 100 times yesterday. Great people the Fijians, actually most Melanesians are good people.
Opposed Session
Roar Rookie
I’m lucky to work full time in the game but like most people I also have aspirations. Anyways that’s a different discussion. There’s only 14 state league coaches in Qld and 12 in NSW. Not all of those are full time basis though. Pay varies from club to club, dependent on finance. As you could imagine an NRL club has a greater capacity. The players prefer to wear the nrl club gear than an affiliates. I prefer any team under NRL level to remain as local clubs of that state. My own junior club that I also played state league for was killed off many years ago. Such a proud club that no longer has much relevance above junior level. So I hate to see that with other clubs across the country.
Chuck
Guest
https://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/fabulous-fiji-kaiviti-silktails-thank-hotel-staff-with-touching-gesture/news-story/9e7bc3dacc42e2c2f0fb108fea6401db Speaking of the Silvertails how awesome was this!
Opposed Session
Roar Rookie
I think running of the game in Qld is decentralised cause the QRL are dealing ISC clubs. Whereas in Nsw the NSWRL are dealing with NRL clubs and a handful of Canterbury Cup clubs. They have different motives. It’s shouldn’t be one rule for one state and different for another. It needs to be uniform across the board, with whatever decision is made...... hopefully with the best interests of the game at heart. Both states are partners in the game with the 16 NRL clubs. So 18 partners essentially make up the NRL. When Covid hit the NRL clubs got reduced funding and both states got funding cut totally to 0% for the year. Which is why both state leagues got cancelled. The strength of the NRL is the level below it and we saw with back up guys not getting any footy that the standard of play wasn’t as good. NRL are just lucky they changed the rules cause the faster speed made it simpler footy. It resembled touch footy at stages, quickly rolling down field one out and dumping it for a quick play the ball. Don’t get me wrong, I like the ball in play more and quickening up the speed. I just think the NRL product got a “free kick“ after making guys 18-32 in your roster not play any footy.
Max Mayer
Roar Guru
In other big news, former New Zealand fullback Kevin Locke has just signed for the Magpies! Bretherton and the team behind the scenes at Davies must have good connections.