April 5, 2025. Round 2 Brothers vs Sunnybank
Brothers have put in a solid first round of competition to begin the 2025 season at the weekend, putting away the Sunnybank Dragons in all but one match across the weekend.
First Grade
Brothers’ First Grade have overcome their early season wobbles, defeating Sunnybank in their first regular season match, 52-21.
The Brethren, fresh from their bye-round pre-season hit out in Canberra the week prior, were a somewhat new look squad with several club debutantes entering the side, being joined by some of 2024’s most promising 2nd Grade Prospects. Chief among the fresh faces, was Rugby League convert David Fusitu’a, Queensland Reds squad member Jude Gibbs and New Zealander Graham Urquhart,
Brothers hit the lead early thanks to the now familiar form of Dom Fraser powering over off the back of a penalty kick-cum-maul to get proceedings underway, before Sunnybank closed the gap minutes later through a penalty kick to Netani Lesimaikimatuku off some poor Brothers discipline.
The home side then worked their way frequently into the Sunnybank half, with Fraser scoring a repeat effort maul try, before the Brothers backs injected themselves with Benn Delle Cort and Fusitu’a both found space on the right wing to take two tries prior to half time. However, some sloppy reads of play allowed the Dragon’s Pita Halafonua in on the stroke of half-time with the scores closing to 24-10 after the conversion.
The second half should have seen Brothers continue to apply the pressure, however some loose handling whilst defending the kick-off and defensive miscues let Sunnybank straight back in after half time. Brother’s then let in another try with a 90m dash from Dragons’ winger Daniel Malum to tie the scores up 24-all with 30 minutes to play.
Fortunately for the home crowd, the Albion-natives begun to tighten up their attach, and repeated phases in the attacking 22 paid off with first a try to Fusitu’a and a penalty to Jude Gibbs. A late comeback try to Sunnybank’s Eli Fakailoatonga narrowed the scores again, however by this stage Brothers’ bench was becoming cominant, and piled on three more tries in the final 15 minutes to close the match out.
StoreLocal Challenge Cup
Brothers Women have posted another huge victory in their ROund 2 clash of the StoreLocal Hospital Cup, demolishing a fancied Sunnybank Black opposition 57-5. The result sees Brothers’ Women have their most successful start to a season since 2019, with the women in Butchers’ Stripes fast becoming a threat to more established competition.
This result saw some remarkable individual performances, chief amongst those being Tailah Whitmore, who scored five tries and assisted on several others. Brazilian international Maria Gabriela Graf was also incredibly hard to contain, opening up Sunnybank’s line at will and also contributing six conversions to trouble the scorer regularly.
With Sunnybank’s higher-ranked team, Sunnybank Green next up in the Challenge Cup, coach and former Wallaroo Evie Horomia will be thrilled with her side’s efforts leading into this season-setting clash.
Team of the Round: Colts 2
Brothers’ Colts 2 delivered an absolute masterclass to their Sunnybank opposition, putting on 82 unanswered points to kick-start their campaign with an emphatic victory. The effort saw no fewer than 10 different try-scorers and saw Centre Charlton Austin put in a masterful 11/12 effort from the kicking tee.
Results:
StoreLocal Hospital Cup: WIN 51-31
StoreLocal Challenge Cup: WIN 57-5
2nd Grade: WIN 52-12
3rd Grade: WIN 43-5
4th Grade: WIN 5-0
5th Grade: WIN 22-19
Colts 1: LOSS 20-7
Colts 2: WIN 82-0
