Meet the big boppers of the Meninga Cup, Connell Challenge
Meet more than 35 big boppers of the Meninga Cup and Connell Challenge representative rugby league competitions who moved mountains for their sides this season.
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The Home And Away season comes to an end for the Connell Challenge, Harvey 19s and Meninga Cup competitions on Sunday, with no more games for the under 16s and just the finals to be played for the Meninga Cup teams.
Redcliffe were crowned unofficial Connell premiers after an unbeaten season.
“This is three years in a row undefeated in the Cyril Connell,’’ said Dolphins coach Chris Little. “I liked their resilience this year. We lost a lot of quality players to injuries early.
“We made a conscious decision to focus on who we do have a putting a lot of effort into them. To their credit they just trained really hard with a good mindset.
“You can’t help but be really happy and pleased with that because they deserve it.’’
In the Meninga Cup, semi-finalists were confirmed, with Ipswich playing Townsville Blackhawks and Redcliffe taking on Wynnum Manly in two weeks.
ROUND 7 RESULTS
Connell Challenge: Bears 40 def Tweed 4, Jets 36 def Bulls 18, Cutters 26 def Capras 6, Magpies 26 def Norths 24, Blackhawks 38 def Pride 12, Falcons 44 def Clydesdales 12, Redcliffe 28 def Wynnum 10
Meninga Cup: Seagulls 40 def Bears 22, Cutters 46 def Capras 16, Magpies 38 def Norths 30, Jets 23 def Bulls 22, Falcons 30 def Clydesdales 26, Blackhawks 32 def Pride 16, Redcliffe 16 def Wynnum 4.
Harvey 19s: Bears 38 def Tweed 4, Jets 72 def Bulls 4, Blackhawks 22 def Pride 10, Cutters 24 def Capras 8, Magpies 30 def Devils 8, Falcons 22 def Clydesdales 4
To celebrate a cracker-a-jack Connell Challenge and Meninga Cup home and away season, we take a look at some of the big boppers of the competition who have moved mountains for their sides.
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BIG BOPPERS
Kobi Floro (Brisbane Tigers)
The Tigers Connell Challenge squad had some big boppers, but they would not come much bigger than Kobi Floro. He is the sort of kid where you’d hear his footsteps coming before you saw him.
Floro was a towering 193cm tall and well over 100kgs. How the Wavell SHS schoolboy did as well as he did playing in the midday heat for most of the season, I will never know. But he should be nicely conditioned for school football. The Tigers also had fellow prop Cooper Benvenuti, who was a big, mobile bopper, but he was dwarfed by Floro.
Alex Leapai (Souths Logan)
If Floro is the biggest man in the Connell Challenge, then Leapai gets the big man prize in the Meninga Cup. Leapai, who has biceps like tree trunks, is around 193cm in height and takes two or three defenders with him when he runs. But he is an athletic big man – maybe it is all the dancing around the boxing ring he does – and is also a try scoring machine for a middle forward.
Mafiou Cherif (Ipswich Jets)
Cherif is one of our favourite players to watch.
The Ipswich SHS prop is tall, strong, and quick. When you see the Year 11 in his element it is a sight to see, one of the Walter’s Cup’s best, an absolute menace on both sides of the ball.
This Meninga Cup season he has put on half a dozen rib-crunching hits.
Gabriel Tunimakubu (Northern Pride)
Tunimakubu was the Pride Meninga Cup battering ram who took plenty of pulling down. A Fijian powerhouse, he hit like a Mack truck and took plenty of pulling down. But he was also a skilled, athletic big man who will just get better with experience.
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Jason Hallie and Gabriel Tunimakubu (Northern Pride)
From the famous FNQ rugby league cradle of Innisfail, Hallie often went one-two with fellow middle forward Gabriel Tunimakubu and with them on the field, Pride had plenty of go forward.
Last season’s Pride’s Meninga Cup player of the year didn’t disappoint again this season. The Pride had a third good, big man – Cain Hastie who has a great footy IQ.
Chaev Kolone (Wynnum-Manly)
What’s in the water at Mabel Park SHS. In Year 12 they have Alex Leapai (mentioned earlier) and in Year 11 they have Chaev Kolone, the young giant who has impressed at every outing for the Wynnum-Manly Seagulls Connell Challenge side this season. And the bad news for opponents is that he has not stopped growing yet. He will also be as fit as a fiddle for the school season, having endured the heat of the Connell Challenge season.
Xzavier Timoteo (Ipswich Jets)
A man among boys, Timoteo has been entertaining as ever in Jets colours this season.
The Ipswich SHS product is an absolute work horse, and when you throw in his height and build you have one of the best players in the Cyril Connell Challenge.
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Cooper Cracknell (Ipswich Jets)
Cracknell has been somewhat of an unsung hero for the Jets Connell team, who started slow before really finding their strap and winning three in a row.
He is an offload king and an excellent leader, the prop who seems to just keep growing a terrific captain for his Ipswich side.
Henry Sologinkin (Redcliffe Dolphins)
He wears jersey No.17 for the Dolphins Connell side and boy does the red-headed forward run hard.
If you’re at a Dolphins game you’d be able to spot him in a second. Look for a ginger haired powerhouse rampaging up the middle and making plenty of post contact metres.
He’s not afraid of contact this big bopper.
Camden Hopes (Mackay Cutters)
He will be a big boy when he grows up. In a side not overly blessed with big bodies, the Cutters captain Camden Hopes stands at a hulking 196cm in height and is just under 100kgs.
And has a very high work rate who makes bulk metres post contact too. A noted leader, he is contracted to the Cowboys.
Emmanuel Asomau (Souths Logan)
According to his Connell Challenge coach Scott Bannon, Emmanuel “is scary strong’’.
“And actually he is ridiculously fast for his size and has a big motor,’’ Bannon said. Asomau was one of Marsden SHS’s leading players in its Walters Cup Year 10 campaign last season and he transferred that form into his club season with the Magpies.
Henry Kalliquist and Jake Oberhardt (Capras)
They were no giants but they were making their presence felt in the middle for the Connell Challenge Capras. Kalliquist has been storming off the bench and No. 13 Oberhardt, an Emerald product, has been his team’s best week in, week out.
Kaiden Lahrs and Tavita Penaia Te’o (Blackhawks)
His dad Tom is certainly from the Land of the Giants, and while Lahrs is not as tall, for strength he absolutely was a big bopper. He, Jamal Shibasaki and Tavita Penaia Te’o were mobile middle forward big men who never stopped. Unlike last season the Blackhawks did not have any towering forwards in their line-up in 2023, but the thickly set Penaia Te’o struggled and fought with defenders, using his powerful legs and upper body strength to great effect.
Mason Kira and Beau Lucien (Sunshine Coast)
The Queensland Country under 17 representative from the Kawana Dolphins, Kira can play either No.13 or edge. He is a massive unit, with aggression in defence a feared element of his game. But the mobile big man can also get the job done with the ball as well. Lucien must have eaten all his peas and carrots when he was growing up in the Pomana district, but he is one big, strong unit who packs a punch in the middle for the Falcons’ Meninga Cup side.
Bodhi Sharpley (Clydesdales)
Sharpley is more a lanky, raw boned big man rather than a thickly set giant. But he is tremendously effective, matching it with the best big men in the competition.
Macarius Pereira (Brisbane Tigers)
Pereira is a thickly set, strong as an ox prop forward who has twice won premiership with the GPS First XV rugby union side. He was a mobile big man for the Tigers this season, working hard on and off the ball.
Michael Waqa (Redcliffe)
You would barely recognise Waqa if you hadn’t seen him for 12 months. Gone is the body fat and in its place is a streamlined, fit, athletic middle forward. He was good before his transportation, don’t worry, but is that much better now. So impressive has he been that he captained the Dolphins last weekend and has also been signed by the NRL arm of the club.
Cayde Miller and Jason Hastie (Pride)
Miller was Pride’s Connell Challenge Captain Courageous, a renowned professional who left no stone unturned to deliver for his side. He is a big, mobile kid who can run crash ball in the middle, or use the ball in two hands to mix up his team’s attack. Prop forward Hastie was absolutely magnificent for the Pride under 16s this season, a big bloke with a big heart who only enhanced his reputation this season.
Baylee Meilland (Capras)
He is not exactly a big bopper but Baylee Meilland is one middle forward to watch from Central Queensland for the rest of this year and next. He was one of the Capras best under 16s forward in 2022 and has not looked out of place in the Meninga Cup this season as he got more comfortable each game playing against older men.
Majah-Jose Peachey (Wynnum-Manly)
More an explosive powerhouse than a big, big bopper, Peachey is big in heart and big on effort. And as a result he constantly threatens the line with strength and power and leg drive. Having arrived from New Zealand, he is going to impact the school league this season with Mabel Park SHS.
Israel Leota (Souths Logan)
The big bloke would probably be offended to know we were referring to him as a big bopper, but the tall, athletic and powerfully built outside back is certainly physically imposing. Throw in his long stride and pace and he takes some tackling.
Shamus Cobbo (Wide Bay Bulls)
He may be the brother of an NRL superstar and a Queensland Origin pin-up boy, but Murgon SHS’s Shamus Cobbo is happy making his own way in life and not living in the shadow of his older sibling Selwyn. The brother of Selwyn Cobbo (Brisbane Broncos), Shamus is a talented young forward with natural size and strength.
Nixon Pasese (Redcliffe)
Signed by the Dolphins, Pasese was a huge influence at prop for the Dolphins under 16 this season with big, strong carries and mobility for a big man.
Nelson Makeefi (Burleigh)
He is a real handful, this bloke. As strong as an ox, the edge forward powerhouse is a threat that few teams can manage when he is offered possession from a quick play the ball. He is as strong as any middle forward with that tinge of athleticism which sets him apart from others.
Aholoka Toia (Redcliffe)
Toia is big and strong and has been an unsung hero of the Redcliffe Meninga Cup side. While he does not have that explosive pace and power of his older brother, Roosters signed centre Rob, he doesn’t need it because what he does is good enough to hold a place in this crack Redcliffe side.
Isaiah Scanlan (Tweed)
He may not be the biggest of boppers, but Scanlan is a mighty fine big man who knows every truck of the trade when it comes to front row play. Tweed have been lucky to have Scanlan as its skipper this season.
Darcell Snowden (Falcons)
A local junior, Snowden was a mobile big man this season who was a real “follow me’’ leader for the Falcons’ under 16s, the type you’d love to play alongside.
Cooper Benevenuti (Tigers)
He is one of the best big boppers in the competition who has been outstanding for the Tigers week in, week out. Despite draining heat, he has displayed a big motor and has always been effective with his strength, mobility and determination.
Cohen Jackson (Cutters)
Physically he is not the biggest of boppers, but he has the will of a lion. This kid brings down the big boppers and is never beaten in the middle of the ruck.
Carter Ford (Capras)
This highly talented middle forward from St Brendan’s College, Yeppoon, is one of the most promosing big boppers going. THe son of Origin champion and former Test forward Carl Webb is a commanding middle forward who has been signed for the Dolphins NRL academy.
Taufa Taulani (Redcliffe)
One of the most improved middle forwards in the competition, Taulani has made the starting prop position his own. Not a bad achievement given the competition in what was the Southern Conference’s premier Connell Challenge side.
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