2015 Queensland Cup

2015 Queensland Cup
Duration	March 7 – September 27, 2015
Teams	14
Premiers	Ipswich Jets (1st title)
Minor premiers	Townsville Blackhawks (1st title)
Matches played	167
Points scored	8,231
Top points scorer(s)	Luke Capewell (208)
Player of the year	Patrick Templeman (Courier Mail Medal)
Top try-scorer(s)	Marmin Barba (27)
← 2014 2016 →

The 2015 Queensland Cup season was the 20th season of Queensland's top-level statewide rugby league competition run by the Queensland Rugby League. The competition, known as the Intrust Super Cup due to sponsorship from Intrust Super, featured 14 teams playing a 29-week long season (including finals) from March to September.^[1]

The Ipswich Jets won their first premiership after defeating the Townsville Blackhawks 32–20 in the Grand Final at Suncorp Stadium. Wynnum Manly Seagulls' five-eighth Patrick Templeman was named the competition's Player of the Year, winning the Courier Mail Medal.^[2][3]

Teams[]

In 2015, the competition expanded to the 14 teams with the inclusion of the Townsville Blackhawks. Townsville had previously been represented in the competition by the North Queensland Young Guns and Townsville Stingers.^[4]

The Canberra Raiders ended their affiliation with the Souths Logan Magpies, who partnered with the Brisbane Broncos.^[5] After four seasons without an NRL affiliate, the Sunshine Coast Falcons formed a partnership with the Melbourne Storm.^[6]

Colours	Club	Home ground(s)	Head coach(s)	Captain(s)	NRL Affiliate
	Burleigh Bears	Pizzey Park	Jim Lenihan	Darren Griffiths	Gold Coast Titans
	Central Queensland Capras	Browne Park	Jason Hetherington → Lionel Harbin	Guy Williams	Brisbane Broncos
	Easts Tigers	Langlands Park	Craig Ingebrigtsen	Dane Hogan	Melbourne Storm
	Ipswich Jets	North Ipswich Reserve	Ben Walker & Shane Walker	Keiron Lander	Brisbane Broncos
	Mackay Cutters	Stadium Mackay	Kim Williams	Chris Gesch	North Queensland Cowboys
	Northern Pride	Barlow Park	Joe O'Callaghan	Brett Anderson & Jason Roos	North Queensland Cowboys
	Norths Devils		Mark Gliddon	Brett Greinke	Brisbane Broncos
	Papua New Guinea Hunters	Kalabond Oval	Michael Marum	Israel Eliab	None
	Redcliffe Dolphins	Dolphin Oval	Troy Lindsay	Luke Capewell	Brisbane Broncos
	Souths Logan Magpies	Davies Park	Josh Hannay	Phil Dennis	Brisbane Broncos
	Sunshine Coast Falcons	Sunshine Coast Stadium	Glen Dreger	Tom Murphy	Melbourne Storm
	Townsville Blackhawks	Jack Manski Oval	Kristian Woolf	Dan Beasley	North Queensland Cowboys
	Tweed Heads Seagulls	Piggabeen Sports Complex	Aaron Zimmerle	James Wood	Gold Coast Titans
	Wynnum Manly Seagulls	BMD Kougari Oval	Jon Buchanan	Tim Natusch	Brisbane Broncos

Ladder[]

2015 Queensland Cup
Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	B	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Townsville Blackhawks	23	19	1	3	2	870	507	+507	43
2	Papua New Guinea Hunters	23	18	3	2	3	718	487	+231	42
3	Ipswich Jets (P)	23	16	0	7	2	700	502	+198	36
4	Wynnum Manly Seagulls	23	16	0	7	2	623	440	+183	36
5	Easts Tigers	23	13	2	8	2	623	428	+204	32
6	Northern Pride	23	14	0	9	2	523	447	+76	32
7	Redcliffe Dolphins	23	10	1	12	2	671	574	+97	25
8	Mackay Cutters	23	10	1	12	2	547	497	+50	25
9	Tweed Heads Seagulls	23	9	1	13	2	510	585	-75	24
10	Burleigh Bears	23	10	0	13	2	401	674	-273	23
11	Sunshine Coast Falcons	23	7	1	15	2	452	599	-147	19
12	Souths Logan Magpies	23	7	1	15	2	506	664	-158	19
13	Norths Devils	23	5	2	16	2	420	727	-307	16
14	Central Queensland Capras	23	1	0	22	2	330	882	-552	6

Final series[]

The Queensland Cup reverted to a six-team finals format in 2015.

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time (Local)	Venue
Elimination Finals
Ipswich Jets	54 – 26	Northern Pride	6 September 2015, 1:40 pm	North Ipswich Reserve
Wynnum Manly Seagulls	24 – 32	Easts Tigers	6 September 2015, 3:00 pm	BMD Kougari Oval
Major / Minor Semi Final
Townsville Blackhawks	26 – 12	PNG Hunters	12 September 2015, 5:00 pm	Jack Manski Oval
Ipswich Jets	44 – 18	Easts Tigers	13 September 2015, 1:35 pm	North Ipswich Reserve
Preliminary Final
PNG Hunters	12 – 28	Ipswich Jets	20 September 2015, 3:00 pm	BMD Kougari Oval
Grand Final
Townsville Blackhawks	20 – 32	Ipswich Jets	27 September 2015, 3:55 pm	Suncorp Stadium

	Elimination Finals					Major / Minor Semi Finals					Preliminary Final					Grand Final
						1	Townsville	26
						2	PNG Hunters	12								1	Townsville	20
	3	Ipswich	54								2	PNG Hunters	12			3	Ipswich	32
	6	Northern Pride	26								3	Ipswich	28
						3	Ipswich	44
	4	Wynnum Manly	24		5	Easts	18
	5	Easts	32

Grand Final[]

Sunday, 27 September 3:55pm (AEST)

Townsville Blackhawks	20 – 32	Ipswich Jets
Tries: Jahrome Hughes 1 Tom Humble 1 Robert Lui 1 Zac Santo 1 Goals: Robert Lui 2	1st: 8 - 16 2nd: 12 - 16 Report	Tries: 1 Carlin Anderson 1 Marmin Barba 1 Keiron Lander 1 Matt Parcell 1 Dane Phillips 1 Nemani Valekapa Goals: 2 Carlin Anderson 1 Marmin Barba 1 Keiron Lander

Suncorp Stadium Attendance: 8,086 Referee: Clayton Sharpe Player of the Match: Billy McConnachie (Ipswich)

Townsville took out the minor premiership in their debut season, losing just three games (one of those to Ipswich). They qualified for their first Grand Final after defeating the PNG Hunters 26–12 in the major semi final. Ipswich, who finished the regular season in 3rd, defeated the Northern Pride 54–26 in the first elimination final. In the minor semi final, they defeated Easts and then upset the Hunters a week later to qualify for their third Grand Final.

First half[]

Townsville got off to a great start, scoring in the 2nd minute of the game through centre Tom Humble. Ipswich scored their first try in the 19th minute in spectacular fashion, when winger Marmin Barba ran 70 metres before finding his halfback Dane Phillips who scored. The Jets grabbed their second just minutes later when Townsville fullback Jahrome Hughes threw a wayward pass as he was being dragged over the sideline, that was dived on by Barba in the in-goal. Townsville hit back in the 29th minute when winger Zac Santo scored in the right corner. With a minute remaining in the half, Jets' fullback Carlin Anderson sliced through the Blackhawks defence off a scrum to give his side a 10-point lead.

Second half[]

It took just a minute before the Jets had their fourth try of the game, when captain Keiron Lander latched onto a Phillips grubber. Three minutes later they recorded their fifth try when centre Nemani Valekapa scored in the corner. The Blackhawks finally stemmed the flow of points in the 50th minute when Hughes crossed the try line. An Ipswich penalty goal from right in front extended their lead to 12 with 20 minutes to play. Townsville gave themselves a chance late when Robert Lui grubbered for himself to score in the 73rd minute to see his side trail by just six. A tense final seven minutes followed but Ipswich held on and sealed the win with an 80th minute try to hooker Matt Parcell.^[7]

The premiership was the first ever for the Jets, who had gone 30 seasons without success dating back to the Brisbane Rugby League competition. Ipswich second-rower Billy McConnachie was awarded the Duncan Hall Medal for the man of the match.^[8]

NRL State Championship[]

After winning the Grand Final, the Ipswich Jets qualified for the NRL State Championship on NRL Grand Final day. They defeated the Newcastle Knights, the New South Wales Cup premiers, 26–12.^[9]

Player statistics[]

The following statistics are as of the conclusion of the season (including finals).^[10]

Leading try scorers[] Pos Player Team Tries 1 Zac Santo Townsville Blackhawks 31 2 Marmin Barba Ipswich Jets 29 3 Linc Port Northern Pride 24 4 Israel Eliab PNG Hunters 22 5 Carlin Anderson Ipswich Jets 19 6 Matt Parcell Ipswich Jets 18 Michael Parker-Walshe Townsville Blackhawks 18 8 Greg Eden Wynnum Manly Seagulls 17 9 Stargroth Amean PNG Hunters 16 Luke George Northern Pride 16 Kyle Feldt Townsville Blackhawks 16

Leading point scorers[] Pos Player Team T G FG Pts 1 Carlin Anderson Ipswich Jets 18 80 - 232 2 Luke Capewell Redcliffe Dolphins 8 88 - 208 3 Noel Zeming PNG Hunters 7 83 - 194 4 Kyle Feldt Townsville Blackhawks 16 63 - 190 5 Matt Seamark Wynnum Manly Seagulls 2 84 1 177 6 Scott Doyle Souths Logan Magpies 8 66 - 164 7 Marmin Barba Ipswich Jets 29 23 - 162 8 Shaun Nona Easts Tigers 7 66 - 160 9 Liam Taylor Mackay Cutters 5 61 1 143 10 Zac Santo Townsville Blackhawks 31 0 - 124

QRL Awards[]

• Courier Mail Medal (Best and Fairest): Patrick Templeman ( Wynnum Manly Seagulls)
• Coach of the Year: Michael Marum ( PNG Hunters)
• Rookie of the Year: Aaron Rockley ( Wynnum Manly Seagulls)
• Representative Player of the Year: Shaun Nona ( Queensland Residents, Easts Tigers)
• XXXX People's Choice Awards: Wartovo Puara ( PNG Hunters)

Team of the Year[]

Position	Nat	Winner	Club
Fullback		Jahrome Hughes	Townsville Blackhawks
Wing		Marmin Barba	Ipswich Jets
Centre		Kyle Feldt	Townsville Blackhawks
Five-eighth		Israel Eliab	PNG Hunters
Halfback		Michael Parker-Walshe	Townsville Blackhawks
Prop		Daniel Beasley	Townsville Blackhawks
Hooker		Josh Chudleigh	Mackay Cutters
Second-row		Anthony Cherrington	Redcliffe Dolphins
Lock		Mitchell Frei	Wynnum Manly Seagulls

See also[]

• Queensland Cup
• Queensland Rugby League

References[]