Sunshine Coast Falcons coaches name key players of 2023 season

Sunshine Coast Falcons Queensland Cup and Hastings Deering Colts head coaches have revealed their 2023 standout players, regular season review and finals aims.

Sunshine Coast Falcons 2023 Colts and Queensland Cup players. Pictures: Nicola Anne Photography and Phil Bradeley Sports Photography.

The 2023 Hostplus Cup and Hastings Deering Colts regular season is coming to a rapid close with head coaches from both sides giving insights on their seasons so far, naming their key performers and stating their finals’ aims.

With just four rounds in the Colts and five rounds in the Hostplus Cup competitions remaining, both sides are still battling it out for their place in the finals.

We caught up with both coaches to get their reflection on the regular season and to find out what tricks they had up their sleeves for the final few matches.

Hastings Deering Colts (U21s)

Head coach: Cameron Boaza

Wins: 6 Losses: 4 Draws: 0 Pts: 16

Ladder position: Seventh

Run home: Wynnum Manly Seagulls (A), Ipswich Jets (H), Western Clydesdales (A) and Tweed Seagulls (A).

Sunshine Coast Falcons U21s Colts head coach Cameron Boaza. Picture: Patrick Woods.

Season summary: “We’ve had some success but it’s been patchy. I suppose it’s just about trying to string some wins together which has been the hardest part for us. We’ve had a few injuries here and there but that’s no excuse as we’ve got some good personnel so we’ve just got to keep working and perform more consistently. We’d love to place a little bit better on the ladder but there’s an opportunity for us to win a few more games and get into the top four which would be our aim.”

What’s working and what needs improvement? “The boys are just willing to learn and they work really hard. It’s been really good as we do opposed training sessions against the Cup side quite regularly where we can test a few things out but as far as strengths are concerned the players are just willing to be better every week. Our consistency would be what needs improvement. We’re missing a lot of tackles which are getting less and less now each week but we just want to be a better defensive unit. We’re pretty good with the footy so we have to make sure we can stop teams from scoring points.”

Sunshine Coast Falcons Hastings Deering Colts players Blake Ginman, Blake Woodford, Mason Peut and Jett Thorpe-Elich in action. Pictures: Nicola Anne Photography and Phil Bradeley Sports Photography.

Standout players: “Our captain and hooker Blake Ginman has been phenomenal this year. He probably wasn’t our first choice for captaincy but his work in the pre-season was great and he’s just continued that throughout the year. He’s so tough, very resilient, brings a lot of energy into the group and is just a really good leader. He’s one that we probably haven't been able to do without and the other would be Blake Woodford. He’s been amazing this year and I really see his projection going a lot further than Colts and Cup footy. His numbers are excellent week to week, there’s not much difference between his best and worst games and he was rewarded with a game in Cup this year up at Rocky. Apart from those boys there's some other young boys like Mason Kira, who is in the Queensland under 19s and Jett Thorpe-Elich who is another bottom age player but is progressing really well. Then with six tries last game, Mason Peut, it won’t be long before he gets snapped up as he’s been a wonderful performer for us and then we’ve had a few surprise packets too. Elliot Smethills is up there in the try scoring ranks and almost ran for 300m against Pride last weekend so we’ve got good quality across the park.”

End of season aim: “I’m pretty confident we’ll make finals, it’s just where we’ll end up sitting in the mix. If we continue the way we’ve been playing with off and on performances we’ll probably end up in the bottom four and have to play in that first round elimination final which makes things hard. Sudden death first up is always difficult so we’d like to push our way into that upper group and continue to build. We’ve still got some time to be better every week so we’ll try and achieve that.”

Hostplus Cup

Head Coach: Brad Henderson

Wins: 7 Losses: 7 Draws: 1 Pts: 19

Ladder Position: Ninth

Run home: Northern Pride (A), Wynnum Manly Seagulls (A), Ipswich Jets (H), Norths Devils (A) and Tweed Seagulls (A).

Sunshine Coast Falcons head coach Brad Henderson. Picture: Patrick Woods.

Season summary: “It’s been disappointing, probably a fractured year in a sense given we got off to a great start and were up inside the top four after beating some good teams. We have had some significant injuries since then, we lost our captain Patrice Siolo which really hurt us and a few other players like Campbell Duffy and Jack Gibbons who were a big part of the program last year. It’s probably been an inconsistent year where we’ve had some good wins like the one against Burleigh in round 16 but then turned up and played really poorly against Souths the following week. A very hit and miss season of inconsistency would be the best way to describe it.”

What’s working and what needs improvement? “That’s hard to say, I would've said defence initially but I can’t say we’ve got a great strength at the moment. I’d say we’re struggling to find our best game at the moment. Mentally we need to be a lot better, our conditioning is great and we’re going really hard at the back end of games and that’s how we beat Burleigh and even how we finished really strongly against Souths so conditioning wise we’re good. Mentally I think we have to put a bit more preparation into our football and a bit more accountability on our performances.”

Sunshine Coast Falcons players Danny Heenan and Louis Geraghty. Picture: Patrick Woods.

Standout players: “From a local perspective I’d say Scott Galeano, he was one of our main recruits that we got from Tweed Heads. He went down and did a pre-season with the Melbourne Storm and has been really solid this season. He’s been finding the try line a lot for us as a big outside back and he gets us forward really well with yardage. Kane Jackson, another local boy who did a pre-season with the Storm as well. He’s been really good in the centres for us and another would be Louis Geraghty who has played a lot of games for the Falcons now. He came through the Storm system in their under 20s and that and he’s been a particular standout. I’d also add our young hooker as well Danny Heenan who, with the games he’s been able to play when the Melbourne Storm boys haven’t come back, has been really strong for us.”

End of season aim: “This weekend is a massive test and a great opportunity for us. Pride are sitting just in front of us on the ladder and if we can knock them off it’s potentially a four point shift and if we want to play finals footy we’ve got to start beating these teams. Once you’re in the finals it’s a different season so we can whinge and moan about what’s gone wrong for us this year but we’ve just got to get in there. We do have to start playing some good footy though, I couldn’t have been happier with our match against Burleigh where I thought for 80 minutes we were the better team and really grinded it out but we then started poorly against Souths and ultimately got what we deserved. If we’re going to turn up like that again then we’ll get what we deserve again and we won’t make the eight which would be disappointing considering the squad we’ve got.”

Originally published as Sunshine Coast Falcons coaches name key players of 2023 season