The 2006 Queensland Cup season was the 11th season of Queensland's top-level statewide rugby league competition run by the Queensland Rugby League. The competition, known as the Queensland Wizard Cup due to sponsorship from Wizard Home Loans featured 11 teams playing a 26-week long season (including finals) from March to September.

2006 Queensland Cup
DurationMarch 11 – September 16, 2006
Teams11
Premiers Redcliffe Dolphins (5th title)
Minor premiers Toowoomba Clydesdales (3rd title)
Matches played116
Points scored5,972
Player of the year Brandon Costin (Courier Mail Medal)
← 2005
2007 →

The Redcliffe Dolphins won their fifth premiership, defeating the Toowoomba Clydesdales 27–6 at Suncorp Stadium. Souths Logan Magpies five-eighth Brandon Costin was named the competition's Player of the Year, winning the Courier Mail Medal.[1]

Teams

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In 2006, the Queensland Cup retained the same 11 teams that competed in the 2005 season. The Wynnum Seagulls, who played under that name from 1995 to 2005, returned to playing as the Wynnum Manly Seagulls.

Colours Club Home ground(s) Head coach(s) Captain(s) NRL Affiliate
Burleigh Bears Pizzey Park Jim Lenihan Ryan Gundry None
Central Comets Browne Park Matt Parish Herewini Rangi None
Easts Tigers Langlands Park Michael Booth Matt Lockyer None
Ipswich Jets QLD Group Stadium Trevor Gillmeister Danny Coburn None
North Queensland Young Guns Dairy Farmers Stadium Michael Crawley Daniel Strickland   North Queensland Cowboys
Norths Devils Bishop Park Wayne Treleaven Anthony Boyd   Melbourne Storm
Redcliffe Dolphins Dolphin Oval Anthony Griffin Troy Lindsay   Brisbane Broncos
Souths Logan Magpies Brandon Park Mark Gliddon Brandon Costin None
Toowoomba Clydesdales Clive Berghofer Stadium Mark Gee Nick Kenny   Brisbane Broncos
Tweed Heads Seagulls Piggabeen Sports Complex Steve Murphy Matt King None
Wynnum Manly Seagulls Kougari Oval Neil Wharton Jimmy Ahmat None

Ladder

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2006 Queensland Cup
Pos Team Pld W D L B PF PA PD Pts
1   Toowoomba Clydesdales 20 16 0 4 2 680 462 +218 32
2   North Queensland Young Guns 20 14 2 4 2 604 392 +212 30
3   Redcliffe Dolphins (P) 20 14 0 6 2 619 434 +185 28
4   Tweed Heads Seagulls 20 11 0 9 2 473 455 +18 22
5   Easts Tigers 20 10 2 8 2 505 490 +15 22
6   Burleigh Bears 20 9 3 8 2 429 435 -6 21
7   Norths Devils 20 8 1 11 2 538 570 -32 17
8   Central Comets 20 7 1 12 2 409 560 -151 15
9   Wynnum Manly Seagulls 20 5 3 12 2 483 562 -79 13
10   Souths Logan Magpies 20 5 2 13 2 497 632 -135 12
11   Ipswich Jets 20 4 0 16 2 486 731 -245 8

Finals series

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Home Score Away Match Information
Date Venue
Qualifying / Elimination Finals
  Tweed Heads Seagulls 4 – 12   Easts Tigers 26 August 2006 Piggabeen Sports Complex
  North Queensland Young Guns 8 – 22   Redcliffe Dolphins 27 August 2006 Townsville Sports Reserve
Semi-finals
  North Queensland Young Guns 18 – 28   Easts Tigers 1 September 2006 Dairy Farmers Stadium
  Toowoomba Clydesdales 56 – 22   Redcliffe Dolphins 2 September 2006 Clive Berghofer Stadium
Preliminary Final
  Redcliffe Dolphins 30 – 16   Easts Tigers 9 September 2006 Dolphin Oval
Grand Final
  Toowoomba Clydesdales 6 – 27   Redcliffe Dolphins 16 September 2006 Suncorp Stadium
Qualifying / Elimination FinalsMajor / Minor Semi-finalsPreliminary FinalGrand Final
1  Toowoomba56  Toowoomba6
  Redcliffe22  Redcliffe27
2  North Qld8  Redcliffe30
3  Redcliffe22  Easts16
  North Qld18
  Easts28
4  Tweed Heads4
5  Easts12

Grand Final

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Saturday, 16 September
Toowoomba Clydesdales   6 – 27   Redcliffe Dolphins
Tries:
Ben Vaeau 1
Goals:
Nick Parfitt 1
1st: 6 - 12
2nd: 0 - 15
Report
Tries:
2 Rory Bromley
1 Ryan Cullen
1 Mark Shipway
1 Marty Turner
Goals:
3 Greg Bourke
Field Goals:
1 Mick Roberts
Suncorp Stadium
Referee: Brett Suttor
Player of the Match: Mick Roberts (Redcliffe)
Toowoomba Clydesdales Position Redcliffe Dolphins
Nick Parfitt FB Ryan Cullen
Denan Kemp WG Chris Giumelli
Jason Moon CE Greg Bourke
Jamie Simpson CE Nick Emmett
Steve Michaels WG Rory Bromley
Joel Moon FE Chris Fox
Ben Green HB Marty Turner
Nick Kenny (c) PR Troy Lindsay (c)
John Te Reo HK Mick Roberts
Ben Vaeau PR Adam Starr
Chris Muckert SR Grant Flugge
Derrick Watkins SR Danny Burke
Greg Eastwood LK Mark Shipway
David Taylor Bench Nick Walker
Joe Clarke Bench Shannon Fish
Lynden Murphy Bench Daniel Green
Lachlan Morgan Bench Gerard Parle
Mark Gee Coach Anthony Griffin

Toowoomba finished the regular season as minor premiers and charged into the Grand Final after a dominant 56–22 win over Redcliffe in the major semi final. Redcliffe ended the season in 3rd place and upset the 2nd place North Queensland Young Guns 22–8 in the first week of the finals. After the big loss to Toowoomba, the Dolphins defeated Easts 30–16 to qualify for their eighth Grand Final and their fourth against the Clydesdales. In the regular season, Toowoomba defeated Redcliffe 42–28 in Round 8, while the Dolphins won the return match 34–16 in Round 18.

First half

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Toowoomba prop Ben Vaeau opened the scoring in just the 3rd minute of the contest when he steamrolled through the Dolphins defence from 10 metres out to score. Redcliffe hit back in the 8th minute when halfback Marty Turner stepped through some soft defence to score under the posts. With 10 seconds remaining in what was a tough first half, the Dolphins took the lead when fullback Ryan Cullen went through under the posts to score. The Dolphins taking a 12–6 lead into the half time break.

Second half

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Redcliffe maintained their narrow six-point lead for most of the second half, before hooker Mick Roberts kicked a field goal in the 67th minute to extended his side's lead to seven. Just over a minute later the Dolphins had their third try of the game when centre Nick Emmett batted down a Roberts' cross-field kick to his winger Rory Bromley who scored in the corner. Redcliffe pulled off a carbon copy of the try five minutes later when Emmett brought down a Turner kick and handed it off to Bromley who got his second. With two minutes remaining, Mark Shipway scored to seal the contest for Redcliffe and secure their fifth Queensland Cup premiership.

The 2006 Grand Final would be the last game the Toowoomba Clydesdales would ever play in the Queensland Cup. One of the foundation clubs of the competition, the Clydesdales ceased operations at the end of the year due to financial reasons.[2][3]

End-of-season awards

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Queensland Rugby League". queensland.rleague.com. Archived from the original on 30 December 2006. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  2. ^ Nathan Friend Push Return ClydesdalesThe Chronicle Archived 28 January 2020 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ "Clydesdales quit Qld Cup - ABC News". ABC News. 6 December 2006.