2009 Queensland Cup

In 2009, the Queensland Cup featured 12 teams for the first time since the 2004 season. The Sunshine Coast Falcons, re-branded as the Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles, returned to the competition after the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles injected $1 million into the club and formed a partnership.^[4]

Colours	Club	Home ground(s)	Head coach(s)	Captain(s)	NRL Affiliate
	Burleigh Bears	Pizzey Park	Jim Lenihan	Scott Smith	Gold Coast Titans
	Central Comets	Browne Park	Wayne Barnett	Nat Bowman	Brisbane Broncos
	Easts Tigers	Langlands Park	Darren Smith → Jason Gainey	Ben Vaeau	Brisbane Broncos
	Ipswich Jets	Briggs Rd Sporting Complex	Glenn Lazarus	Danny Coburn	Gold Coast Titans
	Mackay Cutters	Mackay JRL Grounds	Shane Muspratt	Jardine Bobongie	North Queensland Cowboys
	Northern Pride	Barlow Park	Andrew Dunemann	Chris Sheppard	North Queensland Cowboys
	Norths Devils	Bishop Park	Mark Gee → Kevin Carmichael	Mark Leafa	Brisbane Broncos
	Redcliffe Dolphins	Dolphin Oval	Gary O'Brien	Danny Burke	Brisbane Broncos
	Souths Logan Magpies	Meakin Park, Davies Park	Paul Bramley	Phil Dennis	Canberra Raiders
	Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles	Stockland Park	Brandon Costin	Cameron Joyce	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles
	Tweed Heads Seagulls	Ned Byrne Field	Steve Anderson → Steve Lacey	Brad Davis	Gold Coast Titans
	Wynnum Manly Seagulls	BMD Kougari Oval	Shane McNally	Darren Bain	Brisbane Broncos

In 2009, after using a five-team finals series for 10 years, the Queensland Cup used a six-team system. The competition used a six-team format from 1996 to 1998, although the system used in 2009 was two weeks shorter.

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time (local)	Venue
Semi-finals
Souths Logan Magpies	16 – 8	Tweed Heads Seagulls	29 August 2009, 2:00pm	Meakin Park
Central Comets	21 – 14	Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles	29 August 2009, 7:00pm	Browne Park
Northern Pride	44 – 16	Norths Devils	29 August 2009, 8:00pm	Barlow Park
Preliminary Finals
Northern Pride	22 – 10	Central Comets	5 September 2009, 2:00pm	Kougari Oval
Souths Logan Magpies	26 – 30	Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles	5 September 2009, 3:00pm	Meakin Park
Grand Final
Northern Pride	18 – 32	Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles	12 September 2009, 2:00pm	Stockland Park

Saturday, 13 September

Northern Pride	18 – 32	Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles
Tries: Jamie Frizzo 1 Tom Humble 1 Rod Jensen 1 Goals: Tom Humble 3	1st: 8 - 12 2nd: 10 - 20 Report	Tries: 3 Shane Neumann 1 Michael Chapman 1 Trent Hodkinson 1 Ryan Walker 1 Tony Williams Goals: 2 Trent Hodkinson

Stockland Park Attendance: 3,000 Referee: Clayton Sharpe Player of the Match: Tony Williams (Sunshine Coast)

The Northern Pride, who finished the regular season in second, qualified for their first Grand Final after a 22–10 win over the Central Comets in the preliminary final. They were joined by the Sunshine Coast, who finished fourth in their return season, after they defeated reigning premiers Souths Logan 30–26 in the preliminary final.

The Pride opened the scoring in the fifth minute when they created a huge overlap, with centre Jamie Frizzo finishing off the play with a try. The Sunshine Coast responded quickly when five-eighth Tony Williams bumped off a defender and threw an offload to centre Shane Neumann who crossed for his first try. The Sea Eagles hit the lead in the 27th minute when winger Michael Chapman scored untouched in the corner. They scored again four minutes later when Ryan Walker scored in the opposite corner. Poor goal kicking kept the Pride in the contest, as Williams missed all three conversion attempts. The Pride converted a penalty from right in front on the stroke of half time to trail by just eight at the break.

The Sunshine Coast extended the lead to 10 in the 47th minute when Williams dived over for a try of his own. The Sea Eagles kept the points coming when Neumann dived over in the corner for his second just six minutes later. With just over 10 minutes remaining, the Pride gave themselves a chance when Rod Jensen scored and cut the Sea Eagles' lead to 10. Three minutes later, the Sunshine Coast all but sealed victory when halfback Trent Hodkinson scored close to the posts. The Pride scored a late consolation try when Humble latched onto a wayward Sea Eagles' pass and ran 80 metres to score under the uprights. In the final minute, Neumann crossed for his hat trick as the Sea Eagles' wrapped up a 14-point victory.

Tony Williams, who was awarded the Duncan Hall Medal, and second rower Vic Mauro would go onto play in the Manly Sea Eagles' 2011 NRL Grand Final win over the New Zealand Warriors.^[5]

• Courier Mail Medal (Best and Fairest): Scott Smith ( Burleigh Bears)
• QANTAS Player of the Year (Coaches Award): Ian Lacey ( Ipswich Jets)
• Coach of the Year: Paul Bramley ( Souths Logan Magpies)
• Rookie of the Year: Matt Gillett ( Norths Devils)
• Representative Player of the Year: Scott Smith ( Queensland Residents, Burleigh Bears)

• Queensland Cup
• Queensland Rugby League