A last-gasp try by winger Hamish Roberts today delivered a dream first premiership to Bond University in a classic StoreLocal Hospital Cup grand final at Ballymore Stadium.
The Bull Sharks snatched a 27-25 win that left Brothers with the numb feeling that a hat-trick of premierships had been missed by a whisker.
“Unreal. I’ve been at the club for six seasons without even making the grand final until today. Now this,” enthused Bond University captain Tyler Campbell, the Tony Shaw Medallist as the best on field.
“I can’t even explain how good this feels for the club to win for the first time since joining the comp in 2014 and to be leading this one.”
Another of the heroes of this pulsating, eight-try grand final was the man who stood tallest in the final, desperate skirmishes…replacement back Dion Samuela. The former Southport School star only returned to rugby this season after a few years out of the game.
Bond were down to 14 men for the final 10 minutes with replacement halfback Jordan Lenac in the sin bin. Samuela found himself at halfback, spotted a gap from the ruckbase and took off. When cornered, he stabbed a kick to the right touchline.
Speedster Roberts swooped to rope in the ball without breaking stride and dived into history with his five-pointer.
Incredibly, Bond defied the disadvantage of three yellow cards to dig as deep as any club could.
It was Bond University’s first premiership since they joined the Queensland Premier Rugby ranks in 2014 and the first by a Gold Coast-based club since the Gold Coast Breakers’ success in 2004.
It was rousing outcome for Gold Coast rugby stalwarts like Terry Jackman in the grandstand and master coach Mick Heenan, who now has a staggering seven premierships to his name.
The grand final had six lead changes and three in the tense final 10 minutes. The Brethren might have thought they had done enough when Queensland Reds centre Dre Pakeho dived over against the 14-man Bond outfit with just over five minutes to play. It turned a 22-20 deficit into a 25-22 lead.
Even after Roberts scored, there was still time for a Brothers rally. Former NRL star David Fusitu’a burst into the clear and only Samuela’s tackle saved a try as the game ticked to the 82nd minute.
A Michael Wood surge nearly got Brothers to the tryline in the play that followed but the final chance was gone in the chaos of hands, bodies and a ruckbase knock-on.
Bond’s Queensland Reds lock Josh Canham was immense. He set up the opening try and dominated the lineouts as with his catch at the front for the George Blake rolling maul try.
“My first premiership for any club. I’m speechless. It was such a rollercoaster,” Canham said.
“Our discipline hurt us until we just simplified everything and backed our maul and our scrum. I’m really happy to bring some silverware back to this great club.”
Reds prop Aidan Ross looked stunned. He'd won a premiership in his first game for Bond after more than 100 games for the Chiefs in Super Rugby and only losing finals.
"How good? I've finally won something," Ross beamed.
Jubilant fans surged from XXXX Hill to mob the celebrating Bull Sharks.
Leading the way were members of the club’s women’s team who had won the StoreLocal Founders Cup for a fourth straight time on Saturday.
Most were still wearing Saturday’s premiership medals. Some still had the plastic full-body shark costumes that gave club rugby’s biggest day such spirit. For the first time since Easts in 2020, a club had won the men's and women's title double.
Brothers had heroes themselves. Livewire winger Will Cartwright scored three tries with his pace, footwork and skill in the air.
Wood was at his aggressive best. Pakeho made a superb burst off a kick return in the first half and was busy throughout. Red Tim Ryan had a busy game. He threatened to open up Bond several times yet a desperate Bond grab always seemed to stop him.
“We knew they were never going to go away for the 80 minutes and that’s how it turned out,” dejected Brothers captain Will Wilson said.
“We just couldn’t get away from them when we did get leads.
“Two-point grand finals…it has been the story of the past few years (2023-24-25) and we were on the wrong end of this one.”
A Cartwright penalty goal opened the scoring but it was the Bull Sharks who scored the first try. It was a classic one-handed offload from Canham that put flanker Kobe Walters into space. A quick pass put lock Dylan Loader over for a 7-3 lead.
Walters was wearing replacement jersey No.27 after his starter’s jersey was ripped just minutes earlier in a high-spirited scuffle.
At the 27-minute mark, Brothers regained the lead when Cartwright scored on the left sideline after good passing work from prop George Tuineau.
Brothers’ grand final composure came to the fore when they played out the first half to the final seconds. Flanker Noah Nielsen opened up Bond with a slicing run. The Brethren capitalising perfectly when flyhalf Harry Grant dabbed a crossfield kick.
You never imagine the smallest winger on the field gobbling the kick from the sky but the classy Cartwright did just that to score his second.
His sideline conversion sent Brothers to the break with a 15-7 lead.
Bond clawed back into it just after half-time when gamebreaker Campbell surged over from close to the line. At another moment, he was like a one-man pinball bouncing in and out of tackles for 20m with his great knack for staying on his feet.
BOND UNIVERSITY 27
Tries: Dylan Loader, Tyler Campbell, George Blake, Hamish Roberts
Conversions: Luke Depiazzi 2
Penalty Goal: Luke Depiazzi
Defeated
BROTHERS 25
Tries: Will Cartwright 3, Dre Pakeho
Conversions: Will Cartwright
Penalty Goal: Will Cartwright
Half-time: Brothers 15-Bond University 7
Second grade: Brothers 41 d Bond University 17
Colts 1: Wests 31 d Easts 22
Venue: Ballymore Stadium
