Sunshine Coast Falcons v Ipswich Jets at Sunshine Coast Stadium on Saturday, June 3 – 2.30pm
Sunshine Coast Falcons
1. Scott Drinkwater 2. Matthew Soper-Lawler 3. Jeremy Hawkins 4. Donald Malone 5. Alexander Copelin 6. Jahrome Hughes 7. Guy Hamilton 18. Vincent Leuluai 9. Alex Bishop 10. Tui Kamikamica 11. Dane Hogan (c) 12. Jye Ballinger 13. Jon Grieve 14. Lachlan Timm 15. Christian Morris 16. Harrison Muller 17. Sean Yorston 19 Liam McDonald
Coach: Craig Ingebrigtsen
Ipswich Jets
1. Wes Conlon 2. Michael Purcell 3. Ben White 4. Nemani Valekapa 5. Richard Pandia 6. Chris Ash 7. Dane Phillips (c) 8. Mitch Carpenter 9. Luke Capewell 10. Nat Neale 22. Tyson Lofipo 12. Seb Pandia 21. Jesse Roberts 11. Sam Martin 13. Rory Humphreys 16. Huskie Teatau 15. Marion Seve 17. Lachlan Roe
Coach: Ben Walker and Shane Walker
LAST TIME THEY PLAYED Round 4 2017.
SUNSHINE COAST FALCONS 34 (Guy Hamilton 2, Matthew Grieve, Samuel Wright, Dane Hogan, Matthew Soper-Lawler tries; Guy Hamilton 5 goals) def IPSWICH JETS 4 (Matthew Gibuma try) at North Ipswich Reserve
Head to Head – Ipswich 11 Sunshine Coast 4 Drawn 1
ROUND 13 PREVIEW
The Jets have already played the Falcons this year and came away with a loss back in round four. The Falcons recorded their first win over the Jets since June 2011 and their first win in Ipswich since 2010.
Overall the Jets still lead 11 wins to 4 with one draw.
The Jets haven’t played the Falcons at the Sunshine Coast since 2015 when they won 36-10.
The Jets have won nine of the last 10 games between these two clubs. The Jets won nine in a row before round four this year.
Ipswich have won five from seven at Sunny Coast including last four. Last Falcons’ win at coast was 22-12 in 2011.
The Falcons are coming off a win over Norths, while the Jets are coming away from a good win over Wynnum at home.
The Falcons are currently in third place on 17 points, after eight wins and a draw.
The Jets are on 12 points after six wins.
The Falcons have the advantage in points scored 301 v 264 while in defence it’s again the Falcons 155 to 279.
FALCONS TO WATCH
The Falcons are playing good football, they’ve had one draw and a loss at home this year from six games. Last round against Norths the game was in the balance Norths started well and scored 14 points in the first 25 minutes then didn’t score again until the 70th minute.
Against the Jets in round four, they went the blind side a lot trying to catch the Jets out not moving up on both sides of the ruck.
Donald Malone
Donald Malone will be no stranger to the Jets. He’s the Jets’ all-time leading try scorer with 67 and 408 points. He’s back playing for the Sunny Coast and in typical Duck style scored two tries on the weekend against Norths. That giant right hand fend and waddle will be out in force on Saturday. Malone only ran five times against Norths and scored twice.
Brendon Smith
My Falcon to watch is their hooker Brandon Smith; he played lock against us in round four but he is Storm contracted and could be the replacement for Cam Smith. He would be close to the best player in the Intrust Super Cup at the moment. Smith has a strong kicking game from dummy half and only missed one tackle from 17 against Norths.
Guy Hamilton
Guy Hamilton is the Falcons’ leading points scorer and has 102 points so far this season. He has one try assists and one tackle break running the ball. Hamilton is strong in defence only missing two tackles.
JETS TO WATCH
The Jets looked happy last week against Wynnum. The week before they looked flat and started slowly against the Hunters. The Jets’ off-load count was down to 17. You could hear the Wynnum guys yelling off-load in defence. They did a good job of stopping it. Nat Neale still got four away.
Michael Purcell
Purcell would be captain smiley if the Jets had one. He just looks like he loves running the ball. He made 195 metres against the Seagulls and broke tackles six times. Purcell has now scored 12 tries this year in 12 games and a Jets’ leading 8 line breaks.
Sebastian Pandia
I love watching Pandia play. Sebastian has only missed 15 tackles this year and made 254 tackles from 10 games. He also has 19 tackle breaks from 129 runs. He’s a wrecking ball with or without the ball. He plays long minutes and doesn’t need a break. That’s invaluable.
Luke Capewell
Capewell is the vocal point at dummy half the Jets need. He makes room for everyone else because teams are worried he will go. He had five tackle breaks against the Seagulls and ran seven times. That’s a pretty good return on investment for seven runs. It was his kick that lead to Michael Purcell’s first try too.
The trip to the Coast can be a happy one for the Jets if they’re patient and off-load to players in better positions than themselves.
Falcons did a job on us in round four by shutting down off-loads and having little sneaky blind side plays.
The Falcons also held the Jets up and slowed the game down.
The Falcons were penalised 12 times in total eight of which were for play the ball infringements.
The Jets need to overcome this and not be frustrated.