2025 Aaron Payne Cup live stream: Kirwan State High v St Patrick’s College, Mackay

Pride goes on the line for Kirwan’s impressive crop of young guns, while a star trio will aim to kick-start St Patrick’s Cup quest. Watch a Queensland schools triple header LIVE and EXCLUSIVE.

The Aaron Payne Cup will kick off with a bang on Thursday with a rematch of the 2024 decider between the Kirwan Bears and St Patrick’s, Mackay.

The grand final replay is the headline act from three enticing games of rugby league at Kirwan State High School as the Queensland Schoolgirls Cup and Cowboys Challenge both begin.

The Payne Cup clash will be free to watch live, but a full digital subscription will be needed to access the live streams of the Cowboys Challenge and Schoolgirls Cup.

Every match of the elite Queensland schools rugby league competitions will be exclusively streamed on KommunityTV in 2025.

Kirwan State High will kick off its Payne Cup title defence in style in a grand final rematch with St Patrick’s College. Picture: Michaela Harlow

Kirwan Bears head coach Todd Wilson said their season opener was about more than just the all-important two competition points.

“We haven’t played a game yet, so (the players) have a lot to prove,” Wilson said.

“We’ve certainly got some high hopes for a number of players, but we’ll just see what happens when we play St Pat’s. We’re expecting them to be a real quality opposition.

“We’re expecting a tough game. That Capricornia side at the state champs had a lot of St Pat’s kids and they pushed the best of those southern sides – they’ve done well through the Mal Meninga and Cyril Connell so we’re certainly expecting a tough game.”

The Bears have every reason to be cautious about Thursday’s blockbuster season-opener.

A number of St Patrick’s stars – including dynamic five-eighth Adam McSherry, Mark Morrow and Ryan John – return for another season of Aaron Payne Cup after being among the competition’s standout performers last year.

St Patrick’s playmaker Adam McSherry will lead the school’s charge toward the Aaron Payne Cup in 2025. Picture: Michaela Harlow

The terrific trio have only gotten bigger and better in the past 12 months and St Pat’s coach Shane Mau said the team would enter the competition with a focus on defence.

Mau said his players would need to be switched on from the get-go to stop the Bears running rampant.

“They’re always very tough. They’re usually a very big side and very mobile,” Mau said.

“So we’ll be concentrating on defence – that’s probably going to be our main focus for this, and probably for our first couple of games: really big defensive efforts.

“We’ve probably got the strike power with our attack, but defence is going to win this one.”

The Cowboys Challenge fixture kicks off the day’s action at 10.20am, followed by the schoolgirls at 11.20am and Aaron Payne Cup at 12.20pm.

Originally published as 2025 Aaron Payne Cup live stream: Kirwan State High v St Patrick’s College, Mackay