It's time to get the abacus out as teams figure what they have to do if they're to play finals footy or start thinking about 2026 with the home stretch in sight in this year's Junior Statewide Competitions.
Tweed Seagulls are flying low under the radar at the moment which is strange for the defending premiers that haven’t lost a game, but nothing will bring the focus like a local beach game against Burleigh with their stable of Broncos and den of Bears.
Tweed sits in second and the Bears are located in third.
The Seagulls are averaging 36 points per game in attack and 12 in defence while the Bears are attacking at 30 and 15 a game against.
Tweed’s last round win was 32-14 over Brisbane Tigers and are the masters of the early try - the longest it has taken them to score has been 13 minutes.
Four of their five games they have scored inside five minutes and the target for that early ball is damaging centre Sam Stephenson.
Stephenson is a natural try scorer and his battle with the Bears' outside backs will be worth the money.
Stephenson’s best game was against the Sunshine Coast Falcons with three-line breaks, 214 metres and four tries.
On the Bears side of halfway you have Saxon Innes - the Bears fullback can be anywhere at anytime so good luck getting a read on him or looking for tells.
Against Wynnum he comes through the front door in the middle of the field, gets a quick play the ball and the Bears score down the left-hand side.
Then he pops up on the left himself and throws a pass that should be hanging in the Louvre.
Disharne Tonihi had three tries and two had come from the hands of Innes.
This backline battle is football art.
In the Harvey Norman U19s, this will be a rivalry as old as time with the Brisbane Tigers and Ipswich Jets going head-to-head in the battle of Ipswich Road.
These neighbours don’t like each other.
The Tigers are top of the table for a reason and the main one is they control the ball and keep it off the other team for long periods of time.
Against Tweed, the Tigers raced to a 28-10 win
The game started and stopped with a willing forward pack, the Tigers were able to generate 28 points after all the momentum was won, then it was over to Kameryn Bray and halfback India Seeto to seek and destroy.
Ipswich haven’t won a game and are coming off a loss to the Western Clydesdales but a game against the Tigers will be just what Ipswich need.
The Jets scored five tries to four - that’s a massive positive and they did it with minimal ball.
That’s one area that will need rectifying - if the Jets don’t hold onto the ball and make use of it by scoring points, then the Tigers are going to be hard to beat.
In the Harvey Norman U17s, the Souths Logan Magpies are a machine of beauty.
This week will find them staring down the Norths Devils and doing a lot of staring will be Souths winger and try scoring extraordinaire Gloria Isaraelu who has scored four tries as the Magpies took charge in a huge 66-4 win over the Dolphins.
Left wing Isaraelu had her best game of the season so far, finishing off four tries with a superb long-distance wingers effort that had to be seen.
Isaraelu and the Magpies marched toward a 34-nil half time lead and maintained their precision, power and prowess to run riot in the second half and win big.
Isaraelu finished with 159 metres and four-line breaks with her four tries.
The Devils are coming off the bye, so have had two weeks to rest up and make sure they are ready to go for one last run home.
Norths haven’t played since round three, so it’s been a disrupted month but this is a chance to test themselves against the best.
It will be a repeat of the Mal Meninga Cup top of the table clash in the Cyril Connell Cup presented by Ford when the Bears and Seagulls finish the season with their own epic rivalry.
The Bears and Seagulls have three games in the next nine days so it will be a big test of their resilience.
The Bears finished one-point winners over the Wynnum Seagulls 17-16 last round.
The win was certainly not pretty but if the Bears were a batsman they found runs when it was hard work.
A Harvey Smith field goal was the difference as the Bears side stormed from behind to win against Wynnum.
Smith nailed the one point in the 53rd minute after his side had surged from a 10-point deficit to draw level.
Captain Tupou Francis was strong the whole game with 30 tackles.
Tweed dealt with the Tigers last round 16-6 and it was a struggle late in the season, but like the Bears, Tweed found a way and showed their resilience.
The try of the match, from Tweed winger Basil Coates, saw a chase by Tigers fullback Cooper Murray who took down the Seagulls.
It was Coates' second break for the game and it would be the most important.
With nothing left on the clock, defensive pressure from the desperate Tigers, Tweed second rower Jyah White finally made something happen, slipping out of contact to dive over the line.
Albeit not pretty, it was a well-earned victory for the Tweed Seagulls and a very tough loss for the Tigers.
As usual, Tweed hooker Jai Bilish was outstanding in defence with 26 tackles.
