Rating our best sporting teams of the year
It hasn’t been a great year for the Titans and Suns but there has still been plenty of reason to cheer in Gold Coast sport. Here are our teams of the year.
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IT hasn’t been a great year for the Titans and Suns but there has still been plenty of reason to cheer in Gold Coast sport. Here are our teams of the year.
RUNAWAY BAY fell one win short of the Rugby League Gold Coast A-grade trophy last year but there would be no repeat of that in 2018.
From early in the season before they had even clicked, rival coaches were tipping that Bay would be hard to beat and so it proved.
With quality right across the park, Bay stormed home in the second half of the season and easily cast Tweed Heads aside in the decider.
After finishes of 10th, ninth and 10th in the previous three seasons of the Cricket Gold Coast first grade competition, few expected BURLEIGH to be a true contender leading into 2017-18.
But led by Simon Belston, the Bullsharks got the job done against the odds, sneaking into finals in fourth place before upsetting Queens to make their first final – and seven days later beating Helensvale Pacific Pines to the title.
You would have had to give credit to any team that was able to stop the Windsor Royals baseball juggernaut that had made nine straight Greater Brisbane League grand finals, including winning the past five.
But it just so happened to be SURFERS PARADISE that would be their match, with the Bluewave fighting tooth and nail to hoist the trophy aloft.
The inaugural Aon Uni Sevens Series in 2017 was completely and utterly dominated by University of Queensland but a new force would emerge for the second season.
GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY were spectacular en route to the overall series victory in October, earning medals at all five tournaments including three straight golds to seal their status as the new team to beat.
Having played second fiddle to their Gold Coast arch-rivals Keebra Park in recent years, it was PALM BEACH CURRUMBIN’s turn to step up in the NRL Schoolboy Cup and boy did they ever.
Brimming with talent, the Reds skilfully surged to a national championship through a mix of dominant displays and nailbiting wins.
NEAFL side SOUTHPORT produced one of the great resurgences in recent Coast Aussie rules history in 2018.
The Sharks finished second from bottom with four wins last year while coach Nathan Bock was shown the door.
A major overhaul of a list that welcomed 25 new faces and the arrival of Stephen Daniel led to Southport going on to win their first senior premiership in a decade with a grand final win over the Sydney Swans in front of their home fans at Fankhauser Reserve. Forward Tom Wilkinson capped off a stellar year by being drafted to North Melbourne.
They’ve dominated the South East Queensland Gridiron competition for the past three years and 2018 wasn’t going to be any different for theGOLD COAST STINGRAYS COLTS.
The team went unbeaten through the season to claim their fourth straight Sunbowl with a 33-0 win over Bayside.
After year on year improvement 2018 was destined to be the GOLD COAST WAVES under-14 basketball team year.
Taking out the BQJBC and State Championships the Waves went into the Australian Junior Championships with high hopes. In a tough test the girls triumphed in the final to hoist the trophy.
A case of try, try and try again eventually got the job done for Griffith University Colleges in the Gold Coast District Rugby Union scene.
After being Surfers Paradise’s closest rival in the previous two seasons, the Knights pushed the Dolphins harder than ever before this year and it paid off, with a pair of finals wins enough to break a 22-year premiership drought for the Benowa club.
Move over every other successful team – HELENSVALE HOGS’ under-9s are Gold Coast Rugby’s invincibles.
The young side haven’t lost a single game since beginning in under-6s and have regular winning margins of more than 50 points.
They claimed their fourth consecutive title this year and aren’t looking to end their record any time soon.
They also scooped the Bulletin’s Sports Team of the Year at the Local Sports Star Awards in August.
After claiming Gold Coast Hockey’s division 1 premiership in 2017, Burleigh’s women again stamped their authority with victory over Labrador in this year’s grand final.
Having fallen to Labrador in the major semi, the minor premiers exacted revenge with a clinical 5-1 win in the decider.
The result capped another remarkable year in which BURLEIGH lost just three of 20 games and won 15.
Preparing for a shot at the NPL in 2019, the GOLD COAST KNIGHTS bid farewell to the Gold Coast Premier League in style.
The Carrara outfit first went through the regular season unbeaten – they won 16 games and drew two - before claiming their first top-flight grand final victory with a 5-0 rout of Broadbeach in September.
The 2018 campaign also featured a run to the FFA Cup’s Round of 32, where they more than held their own in a 1-0 loss to A-League premiers Newcastle.
This looked to be the year that three-time South East Queensland division one women’s rugby league defending champions BURLEIGH would come back to the pack.
They stuttered their way through the first six rounds before gathering momentum that would carry them all the way to a fourth title – and not only did they produce representative talent but they blooded more stars of the future like Chante Temara.
The GOLD COAST DOLPHINS’ second-grade side fell agonisingly short of club history in March after losing to Norths in the two-day semi final.
Having already claimed the Alan Pettigrew Shield’s one-day and T20 titles, the Dolphins were on track to claim silverware in all three formats for the first time before their run was ended with a 48-run loss to the eventual premiers.
While Football Gold Coast’s women’s competitions underwent a major upheaval this year, it had no effect on the BROADBEACH UNITED juggernaut.
The Dolphins proved simply unstoppable, winning all 14 games – including September’s grand final against Robina City – to take out the Premier League title double.
Underlining their dominance was a goal difference of plus-77 after conceding just once all season.
PALM BEACH CURRUMBINbecame the second Gold Coast side to win back-to-back QAFL premierships in the past four years in 2018.
The Lions lost just two games during the season before going on to beat Broadbeach in the grand final.
Labrador won the flag in 2015 and 2016 and PBC mirrored the feat by doing the same in 2017 and 2018.
Lions coach Chad Owens has since signed with VFL’s Coburg as an assistant.
The EDMONDS RACING team have been a powerhouse racing stable in Queensland in recent years and 2018 has been no different.
Trainer Toby Edmonds finished second in the Queensland trainers premiership in the 2017-18 season with 58 metropolitan wins with an impressive strike rate of 19.9 per cent.
He also won 107 races in total. Edmonds already has 51 total winners for the 2018-19 season, including 26 at metropolitan level with a strike rate of 25.7 per cent.
His feats in 2018 include winning the PJ Bell Handicap and Bribe Hcp with Houtzen, Australian Post Stakes (Granny Red Shoes), Ramornie Hcp (Havasay), How Now Stakes and Northwood Plume Stakes with Winter Bride, Alinghi Stakes (From Within).
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