This weekend will see the final round played in the Hastings Deering Colts competiton, with teams looking to cement their place in the top six teams to play finals footy.
The top three placings have been determined with the Townsville Blackhawks (1st), Norths Devils (2nd), and Northern Pride (3rd) all picking up victories on the weekend.
However, four teams are still vying for the last three spots with only two competition points separating the fourth-placed Victoria Thunderbolts and the seventh-placed Redcliffe Dolphins.
These two teams will face-off on Saturday in their season finale.
The Thunderbolts will be looking to lock-up the fourth spot on the ladder with a fifth-straight win this weekend; whereas the Dolphins will be fighting for their finals lives, as a loss for them will solidify the top six and put an end to their season.
Thunderbolts coach Ben Jack said Redcliffe would be desperate to win this weekend saying it was “their grand final”.
“Desperation football can either bring out the best or worst in teams and we’re expecting it’ll bring the best out of Redcliffe,” Jack said.
“We’ve got a little bit of a rivalry; they gave us our first loss of the year back in Round 6 at Dolphin Stadium, so we’d like to square-up the ledger a little bit and try to get that win.
“The fact that they’re high energy, high aggression in defence can almost scare teams, and we know that being desperation football for them, it’s going to be more intense then it was when we last played them.”
Round 23 Highlights: U20 Hastings Deering Colts
Jack also said they would have to match the Dolphins “fire with fire” and continue finding their consistency in defence to minimise the Redcliffe attack.
“They’ve got some really good players across the park with the second leading points scorer in the comp (Oscar Carter), some really good halves, and their hooker’s extremely dangerous as well,” Jack said.
“They’re the players that got us last time so we’ve got to be really wary about those individuals and their whole squad as well.
“We’ve really made a conscious effort to be consistent in our defensive principals and it’s paid off which is really good.”
The Thunderbolts can control their own destiny from here on out, but for the Dolphins, they need a bit of help from other results.
Not only do Redcliffe need to beat Victoria on Saturday – they also need either Wynnum Manly or Souths Logan to lose their matches against Townsville and Ipswich respectively.
Wynnum has the tougher task of the two as they face a Townsville Blackhawks outfit who secured the minor premiership with a win over Burleigh last weekend.
The Ipswich Jets too are playing for pride and Souths Logan Magpies will have to play well if they are to get a win.
Follow the scores for this weekend’s Round 24 Hastings Deering Colts matches at QRL Live
