NQ Gridiron: Cairns Falcons’ Brendon Kruger shines in championship win

Cairns Falcons coach Jim Garcia believes the best is yet to come from Brendon Kruger after the rookie quarterback led the club to the biggest win in its history.

Cairns Falcons coach Jim Garcia believes the best is yet to come from Brendon Kruger after the rookie quarterback led the club to the biggest win in its history.

The Falcons captured their first NQ Gridiron championship with a 29-22 win over Townsville Chargers in Reef Bowl VII at Townsville Sports Reserve on Saturday night, after losing the last three straight deciders since the competition expanded beyond the two teams in 2018.

The Cyclones defeated the Falcons 57-7 earlier the season, before the Falcons turned the tables and handed the Cyclones their first loss of the 2020-21 campaign in the penultimate round last month.

Garcia said Kruger had been a big part of the Falcons’ success since taking over the quarterback position at the start of the season, and delivered again in the big dance.

NORTH QUEENSLAND GRIDIRON REEF BOWL 2021. Townsville Cyclones against Cairns Falcons at Townsville Sports Reserve. Falcons Jake Leumann gets ready to take the ball from teammate Brendon Kruger. Picture: Evan Morgan

“I would consider him a rookie player, he only really played three games last year, but the kid’s risen to every challenge that’s been put in front of him,” said the coach.

“He’s a good young kid and he’s still got a long way to go.”

Kruger was instrumental on the night, backing up the Falcons strong defensive unit and even finding the end zone.

“He took off,” Garcia said.

“It was about a 30-yard run for him. He had a couple of really good runs where they had good coverage on the receivers and the oceans parted for him.”

NORTH QUEENSLAND GRIDIRON REEF BOWL 2021. Townsville Cyclones against Cairns Falcons at Townsville Sports Reserve. Falcons Brendon Kruger. Picture: Evan Morgan

Garcia praised the side’s defence.

“Out defence is what we’ve sort of built our confidence and our success on after Christmas, they’ve really led the way,” he said.

“I think you got to give credit to Brian Laws and Eric John Phillips, the two linebackers, and Jake Price in the secondary.

“With some younger players mixed in with some good older heads, and Brian leading the way, they’ve really set the tone. Between those guys, they’ve really asked those young guys to rise and they don’t take a backwards step.”

NORTH QUEENSLAND GRIDIRON REEF BOWL 2021. Townsville Cyclones against Cairns Falcons at Townsville Sports Reserve. Falcons Jake Leumann. Picture: Evan Morgan

Garcia took over coaching at the end of 2018 and said the win was a “surreal” feeling.

“We’ve worked so hard to get to this point,” he said.

“Before Christmas I would have thought that it wasn’t going to happen, and the boys have come together after Christmas and put it all together, so I’m very happy.”

But, while the Falcons had come a long way this season, Garcia said it was a win three years in the making.

“When I took over the club was in a mess, it’s been a complete rebuild of the culture of the club,” he said.

“It was a party boys club when I first got there and we’ve slowly filtered to a football club that’s serious about what it does.”

He said thoughts of going back-to-back would not be entertained just yet.

“That’s something you always want to do but at the moment we’ll just enjoy what we did (Saturday night),” he said.

Originally published as NQ Gridiron: Cairns Falcons’ Brendon Kruger shines in championship win