By Adam Sheldon

Brothers and Easts will play out the biggest fixture of the 2025 Hospital Cup season so far, with the minor premiership – and a home semi-final – hanging in the balance for both sides. 

With just three rounds remaining, Easts lead the competition on 56 points, three clear of Brothers in third.

A win for the Tigers would give them a clear path to minor premiership glory, with remaining matches against Sunnybank and GPS, both winnable on paper.

For Brothers, a win would swing momentum back in their favour and put them in control of their own minor premiership destiny. If Brothers can overcome Easts and win out over UQ and Souths, the trophy would be theirs.

The stakes are equally high in defeat. Should Brothers lose to Easts, they risk slipping out of the top two altogether, with Wests – who have won nine straight – sitting second on 55 points.

The Bulldogs only have two games left to play due to a late-season bye, but could still snatch a top-two finish, or even the minor premiership, if Brothers or Easts stumble in the run home.

With so much on the line, Brothers captain Will Wilson told Rugby News his side was prepared and ready for the challenge.

“It’s a massive game,” Wilson said.

“We’ve been disappointed with the results recently, just going down to Wests and Bond. But everyone’s hugely excited for this weekend and to be back at home against Easts.

“If we win our last three games, we should finish as minor premiers.”

Wilson said the group had been eyeing off this fixture since suffering an 18-point loss to Easts in Round 7 – their first defeat of the season – and took plenty of lessons from that encounter.

“Easts put a number on us earlier in the year and we’ve been looking forward to welcoming them back to Brothers and hopefully reversing that result,” he said.

“They were clinical in that game. They’ve got a big forward pack and play with a really strict game plan. They were the better team on the day and deserved the win.”

With wet weather around this week, Wilson predicted the match would be decided up front.

“I think it’ll be won or lost in the forwards,” Brothers’ captain said.

 “We need to match them in that area. If we win the battle up front, it’ll go a long way to winning the game.”

Brothers will be boosted by the return of lock Michael Wood and the consistent presence of number eight Brad Hemopo, with Wilson confident his side was ready to match the Tigers physically.

“Woody is fired up and ready for a big game, and Brad’s just so reliable for us every week. He’s the most underrated player in the comp for us,” he said.

The other key to stopping a Tigers side that has led the competition through forward dominance and territory control will be shutting down halfback Eli Pilz, who Wilson said is central to everything they do.

“Eli really steers the ship for them,” Wilson said.

“He’s got a great box kick, he controls the tempo, and he’s very effective at getting them around the park. Limiting his influence will be a big focus for us.”

Despite Brothers suffering rare back-to-back competition losses to Wests and Bond, Wilson said the two-time reigning premiers were confident they would get the job done this weekend.

“We reviewed the games really hard and looked at what we needed to work on and improve on leading up to the last few rounds and the finals – but also looked at the bigger picture,” he said. 

“We’ve still got a really good chance to finish as minor premiers, and we’ve got ourselves in this position. We just need to continue to work on a few details and close the season out properly.”