By Tim Mosey

Finals footy is just around the corner and things are certainly getting interesting at a number of Premier Rugby clubs. Here’s what I took out of the weekend’s action.

Final Fortnight

GPS and University have all but cemented their place in the finals, though both sides will still battle for the minor premiership when they meet this weekend at St Lucia.

The fight for third and fourth is a three-way struggle between Easts, Souths and Bond.

Bond were too good for Sunnybank away from home but the bye this week hurts them.

Souths will be disappointed with their loss to GPS.

Their defence was a little suspect late, and they allowed GPS to score the match sealing try much too easily close to their line.

Souths and Easts battle bottom ranked sides Sunnybank and Wests and will be looking to put some space between themselves and a lurking Bond outfit with big “W’s” this Saturday.

HH

Helly Hansen.

Hulk Hogan.

Harold Holt.

There’s a fair list of intriguing individuals with the initials HH.

Add to that young Reds star Harry Hockings.

Against Wests on Saturday, Hockings put on a display of skill rarely seen from second row forwards.

From the kick off Hockings flew over the Wests chasers to nonchalantly pluck the ball out of thin air.

He mixed his game up, aggressively ploughing into rucks on one hand and popping up out wide on the other, casually drawing and passing to put his speed men Clifton Setu and Will Eadie into space on a number of occasions.

He also showed plenty of confidence in scoring his try.

All he had to do was catch a ball from half back Scott Gale while standing still and touch it over the tryline.

He then turned before anyone realised what had happened and trotted back to halfway.

AFL scouts would love to have Hockings on their books.

He’s got incredible size and skill.

The Reds have locked him up for a further two seasons and I think the kid has a bright future.

University put the match against Wests to bed before half time. They went into the break with 34 points under their belt.

Coach Mick Heenan would have been disappointed with their second half performance where they allowed the Doggies to pile on 35 points of their own.

One may allow them grace this week. But come finals time, clocking off early will cost them dearly

Front Row Fun

Easts’ hooker Andrew Ready has set the tryscoring charts alight this season with nine to his name so far.

But it was his front row friends Braden Schiiler and Richie Asiata who stole the show on Saturday with a try each to help Easts overcome a halftime deficit to defeat Norths at Shaw Rd.

Easts would be happy with the way they are travelling heading into August.

Coach Anthony Connellan will be hoping his side can fly under the radar for as long as possible.

Can young halves pairing Phoenix Hunt and Jack Frampton cement their side in the finals?

Or will Easts falter at the final hurdle?

The Tigers’ fate is in their own hands. Two wins, and they go to the finals. Two losses, they may miss out completely.

What a great two weeks coming up.

Reds Players Out and About

The Reds completed their Super Rugby season Friday night and it was encouraging to see many of the players out supporting QLD Premier Rugby and their teammates at suburban grounds.

The players were more than happy to sign autographs and take photos with the kids,

At Wests a strong contingent of contracted players including injured Doggie and Reds skipper Scott Higginbotham took up position behind the poles at Sci-Fleet stadium and enjoyed the high scoring affair.

The Bulldog players didn’t enjoy it quite as much.

They spent a lot of time behind their tryline only to be on the receiving end of some unrepeatable banter from an old teammate.

Officiating

It was interesting spending the afternoon with a young up and coming referee, talking all things officiating and his take on the game.

We spoke about the undercurrent of discontent from supporters, players and coaches within the game in terms of the way it is being officiated.

On certain issues he agreed – the game is not doing itself any favours.

A former player himself, it was not surprising to hear that having played the game for such a long time, he felt he had a particular understanding and appreciation for the game.

No one wonder governing bodies are calling for ex players to take up officiating. They tend to exhibit greater feel for the flows within a match.

Another point of interest was the time put into review both personally and collectively as a group of referees.

The amount of time he spent reviewing and learning from his on-field experiences, particularly around the scrum, was good to hear first hand.

When asked how much contact they had with players outside the actually match he mentioned “not much.”

The introduction of former player Mitch Chapman to the referee group as a coach was thought to be a masterstroke.

Chapman comes at the match from purely a player’s perspective.

He provides officials the opportunity to see the match from the playing angle more so in the training environment and asks challenging questions from the playing perspective.

It seems this step from RA is going to a good one. It provides our officials an opportunity to further progress themselves and their refereeing skills.

At grassroots level, players want consistency and recognition for within-game effort. The game is slower than that at international and Super Rugby level.

We said it earlier in the year, with club rugby officiating, less is more.