Brisbane Tigers

The Tigers held off the Bears 22-18 in a hard-fought grand final match.

Matthew Church, who was the Coach for SP PNG Hunters from 2020 – 2022, steered the Brisbane Tigers to premiership glory in his first year at the club.

Tigers registered first on the scoreboard through Prop Tristan Powell 12 minutes into the game and Tigers took the early lead with a successful conversion. However, the lead was short-lived when the Bears Tony Francis crossed the line twice to give his side a lead 8 – 6 with missed conversions.

Tigers proved too good over the Hunters at Totally Workwear Stadium on Sunday, as the home team posted a 32-18 victory.

But it didn't come easily for the Tigers, with a desperate Hunters outfit racing out to a 12-0 lead within the opening 11 minutes through Rodrick Tai and Solo Wane.

With the Hunters' finals hopes on the line, they went into the break up 12-4 - with Brisbane's sole first-half try coming through centre Solomona Faataape.

The break have given the Hunters enough room for more work outs to maintain the momentum they built over their last five fixtures. Hunters will look to return to the winner’s circle when they face the Brisbane Tigers on Sunday, 30^th July at Totally Workwear Stadium, Brisbane. 

In a close affair, former Hunters coach Matt Church led the Tigers team to face a familiar Hunters line-up on home soil. With a home crowd advantage, Hunters were first to score in the fifth minute through Solo Wane with the conversion unsuccessful.

It was not too long when Tigers replied with a 4-pointer in the 13th minute through Brayden Torpy and soon after Hunter regrouped to put sneaky fullback Morea Morea over the line in the 18th minute, Brandon Nima scored in the 22nd minute, Julius Yakopa scored another not long in the 28th minute. 

The Tigers found the scoreboard early, making the most of some early field position to score through centre Bernard Gregorius.

The Hunters responded well, applying pressure with their defence and working upfield effectively through the middle. On the back of this, in the 17th minute and in his debut appearance for the Hunters, halfback Jamie Mavoko orchestrated PNG’s first points with a perfectly weighted grubber kick that Rodick Tai would fall on to score.