Bears vs Blackhawks HPC Semi Final Pre Game Report βπΌ Michael Nunn
For their entire existence, the UAA Burleigh Bears have made September look like something they owned. They have been the team nobody particularly wanted to play, the premiers who somehow found another gear when the football became more important, more physical and far less forgiving. But this time, even the Bears know they are walking into trouble.
They have lost their past two games.
They were beaten heavily by the Capras and then suffered another defeat against the Sunshine Coast Falcons last week.
The Blackhawks, meanwhile, have won eight of their past 10 games, with a draw thrown in for good measure.
On paper, it is hardly the ideal preparation for a knockout final.
Fortunately for Burleigh, finals football has never been played on paper.
And if there is one club in the Hostplus Cup that knows what it takes to survive September, it is the Bears.
They have played 40 finals for 22 wins and 18 losses, winning three of their past four.
Townsville have played 12 finals, winning just four and losing eight, while they have lost four of their past five finals.
That experience counts for something.
Perhaps not everything.
But something.
Because this is the sort of game Burleigh have built their reputation on winning.
There is no double chance. No safety net. No next week.
Just 80 minutes at UAA Park and a ticket to the next round for the team that gets it right.
The problem is that Townsville have spent the past few months getting an awful lot right.
They have won the past two games between these sides, including a 40-16 victory at Ayr in Round 19.
Before that, Burleigh had won five straight.
The Blackhawks also won the last meeting at UAA Park in 2025, although the Bears had won the previous five there.
Overall, Burleigh lead the head-to-head 9-7, with two draws.
Saturday will be the first finals meeting between the clubs, meaning somebody is about to make a little history.
The Bears will be hoping it is the sort of history they are rather good at making.
There are also two significant returns that could not have come at a better time.
Guy Hamilton and Mason Teague are back.
Hamilton’s return gives Burleigh another point of attack and another experienced head in a game where calm decisions could be worth their weight in gold.
Teague is slightly less subtle.
He simply tackles like a demon.
Both were greatly missed against the Falcons, and their return gives the Bears some of the steel they were missing last week.
For Hamilton, it is also a particularly special night.
He will become the 22nd player to reach 200 Hostplus Cup games, a remarkable milestone that has been more than a decade in the making.
Hamilton made his Easts Tigers debut in Round 5, 2016, scoring a try in their 30-10 win over Central Queensland at Marley Brown Oval in Gladstone.
Two hundred Cup games later, he reaches the milestone in a knockout final.
Then there is Josh Rogers, who has never been one to shy away from the big stage.
Rogers has 91 points in Hostplus Cup finals, sitting third on the all-time list behind Damian Quinn on 96 and Liam Georgetown on 92.
Two more points will move him into second.
Six more will make him the competition’s most prolific finals point scorer.
But like everything else on Saturday, individual milestones can wait.
The Bears need to win.
Townsville will also arrive with confidence on the road, having won four of their past six away games and drawn another.
Burleigh, however, have won two of their past three at home.
And there is a reason the Bears have made UAA Park such an uncomfortable place for opposition teams over the years.
This is where Burleigh’s season needs to turn.
The Blackhawks will want to play fast, move the ball and attack the edges.
The Bears will want to make the middle of the field a place where nobody particularly enjoys spending an evening.
That is where Musgrove and his scary collection of forwards come in.
Burleigh need to bash down the door, slow the Blackhawks’ momentum and make this finals game old school.
Because the Bears are in trouble.
There is no point pretending otherwise.
But perhaps that is exactly where Burleigh are most dangerous.
They are wounded.
They have been written off before.
They have been in enough finals to know that the best team in August does not always win in September.
And they have enough experience, enough toughness and enough big-game players to make Townsville’s brilliant recent form completely irrelevant if they get the next 80 minutes right.
If there is one thing Burleigh have spent their history proving, it is that you should never confuse being in trouble with being beaten.
