Gold Coast local sport’s most dominant teams of season 2021

In sport as in life there are always winners and losers, but sometimes a team goes above and beyond what’s required to be crowned the best – sometimes, that team proves itself truly special.

In sport as in life there are always winners and losers.

For every competition there must be a champion - it is the hamster wheel of sporting life that athletes and coaches ride each year.

Be it Aussie rules, rugby league, cricket or golf, every tried and true sporting competition crowns its champion at season’s end.

That, after all, is the ultimate seasonal goal of a team.

But sometimes a team goes above and beyond what’s required to be crowned the best - sometimes, that team proves itself truly special.

The Bulletin has combed through the results and record books to pick out 10 teams which not only won their respective competitions, but did so in such a dominant fashion that they deserve an extra special mention.

Read on for our top 10 teams in Gold Coast sport for season 2021.

Palm Beach Currumbin SHS (Langer Trophy + Phil Hall Cup)

Palm Beach Currumbin State High School senior rugby league side at training. Tom Weaver and Oskar Bryant. Picture Glenn Hampson

One year earlier PBC fell at the final hurdle in the Phil Hall Cup grand final to Kirwan State High.

The bulk of that young side returned in 2021 on a mission for vengeance, sweeping aside nearly all comers to win the SEQ and QLD titles.

Four players from the team were signed by the Titans to complete their first NRL pre-seasons.

After a mid-season stumble against rivals Keebra Park PBC were perfect, winning the Queensland title in a 62-0 beat down of St Brendan’s.

Southport Tigers Black (Under 13 Div 1)

The title of most dominant team across all Rugby League Gold Coast competitions goes to this incredible Southport Black side.

The Tigers romped to a perfect 12-0 regular season record, won their major semi-final by 70 points and the grand final by a score of 50-20.

The stats don’t always tell the tale but in this instance, they do. Southport finished the regular season with a for and against of 600-82, more than doubling any other team’s points total and conceding 90 fewer points than the next-best team in the division.

Magic United (Women’s Metro Division 2 North)

Throw a blanket over the dominant teams in Gold Coast Football if you like but this Magic United team deserves to stand clear from the pack.

There were teams with more goals scored or fewer conceded in Coast football last season but none could hold a candle to Magic’s consistent dominance.

With 15 wins, no losses and just one draw on the season, the Women’s Metro Div 2 North champions finished the campaign with a ridiculous +65 goal difference.

Griffith Uni Colleges Knights (Rugby Union)

GCDRU Grand Final

The back-to-back reigning champions of Gold Coast rugby union have a winning streak of 31 straight matches since the grand final defeat of 2019.

They were nothing short of perfect in 2021, with an emphasis on defence holding opponents to 12.9 points per game.

The Knights created fewer scoring opportunities but capitalised on practically all of them in a statement of rugby might at Heeb St.

Labrador Tigers (QAFL Reserves)

The unbeaten minor premiers capped their perfect QAFL Reserves campaign with a dominant 39-point win over the Morningside Panthers at Fankhauser Reserve.

Playing in their first grand final since 2016 - a loss to Morningside - Labrador made good on its revenge against the familiar foe five years later to put a punctuation point on the perfect season.

The Tigers went a perfect 14-0 on the season, more than doubled their for and against record and boasted an average winning margin of 45 points.

In every conceivable measure, Labrador was a powerhouse in season 2021.

Labrador Tigers (QAFL Colts)

Like the Reserve Grade side, Labrador’s Colts went through the season unbeaten - and they did so in even more convincing fashion.

The young Tigers finished with a staggering percentage of 292.31 per cent, and romped to a 47-point grand final win over Gold Coast rivals Broadbeach.

Led by tandem tall forwards Ky Nicholls (39 goals) and Joshua Young (35 goals), the Tigers outscored their opposition by more than 800 points over the 15-game regular season.

Having barely scraped into the post-season the previous year, Labrador’s rise from also-rans to competition benchmark was as swift as it was comprehensive.

Burleigh Bombers (QFA Division 2 South Reserves)

Twelve wins and no losses; the only team in the competition to kick more than 1000 points across the season and the Bombers did it easily, with 1325. A percentage of 338.01% headlined the ease with which Burleigh handled its rivals.

It all came to a head in the grand final, where Burleigh comprehensively beat Bond University 15.7 (97) to 5.4 (34).

Southport Sharks (VFL)

The former NEAFL heavyweights have long been one of the most high-profile, dominant Aussie rules clubs in Queensland - but how would the Sharks fair against the best of the best up and down the East Coast? Answer: Spectacularly.

In the first season of a new-look Victorian Football League (VFL) competition, the Sharks proved Queensland footy can more than match it with the more fancied clubs in NSW and Victoria.

The Sharks announced themselves to the football world with an incredible one-point win over Carlton at the club’s famous Ikon Park home ground in Round 1.

Southport would go on to drop just one game all season, finishing at 9-1 and snug in second spot on the ladder before Covid-19 forced an early end to the season.

Helensvale Hogs (U12s rugby)

The kings of the under-12 division were rugby union’s most dominant side on the Gold Coast this season, with a perfect 11-0 record and a points differential of 413 points.

No team achieves those soaring figures without talent and work ethic in perfect balance.

Helensvale’s senior teams are licking their lips in wait for these dynamite juniors to progress through the ranks.

Mudgeeraba Blue (Gold Coast Cricket 3rd Grade)

The only team in Gold Coast senior cricket to complete an unbeaten 2020-21 season, with its four draws all coming via washouts.

Mudgeeraba Blue dominated the 3rd Grade competition last season, headlined by an incredibly miserly bowling attack.

Mudgee conceded just 1446 runs across 12 matches - the least in the grade by more than 450 runs - with a miserly bowling attack the secret to its success.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

BROADBEACH CATS (QAFL): The boys from the Cattery ended a 25-year senior premiership drought in emphatic fashion. Broadbeach suffered through a mid-season form slump, but righted the ship at the pointy end of the season by first knocking off minor premiers Labrador in a thriller, before dominating upstart Maroochydore by 38 points in the decider. Skipper Josh Searle got his flag.

BURLEIGH BEARS (RLGC A-Grade): A dominant season was justly capped by a just as impressive grand final performance from the Bears, who made a quality Tugun team look a clear second-best at Cbus Stadium. Burleigh dropped just two games all season - funnily enough to the bottom two teams - and avenged the previous season’s grand final defeat to be crowned the best on the Coast.

BOND PIRATES (GCDRU): The competition’s whipping boys of the past five years developed a backbone seemingly out of nowhere in 2021. Led by new head coach Buck Heron and a score of influential recruits, including Joe Lalabalavu and Lepau Feau, the Pirates narrowly missed out on a finals berth that would have been unthinkable in recent seasons.