Brisbane State High have been the standout team across the opening rounds of the 2024 GPS first XV season and in a worrying sign for the rest of the competition, coach Steve Kefu doesn’t think his side is anywhere near their best yet. 

State High beat Toowoomba Grammar 47-28 in their opening match of the season, then backed that performance up with an impressive 19-12 victory over an in-form BBC outfit last Saturday. 

“We’re still probably only operating around 70% at the moment and we want to get to 85-90% so we’re still a fair way off our best I reckon,” Kefu told Rugby News during the week. 

“Our discipline was pretty poor against BBC and we probably left four or five tries out on the field so we’ve got a long ways to go.”

Kefu attended Brisbane State High in the late 1990s and jumped at the chance to coach his former school this season. 

The former Wallaby inherited a talented squad over summer with about half the group returning from last season. He then developed a preseason to help get the best out of his playing group, which he said is filled with players that reminded of him of his younger self. 

“The Courier Mail put out some rankings of the teams and we were a fair way down the pecking order. I got it laminated and stuck it up in our change rooms and the boys weren’t real happy about that. 

“That lit even more of a fire in their belly because they want to prove everyone wrong. 

“We didn’t do as much gym work as some of the other schools probably did and when you look at the boys, they probably aren’t as built as some of the other players,” Kefu explained. 

“But we did a lot of our strength work through grappling and wrestling and I think that helped get the boys rugby ready and improved their mobility ahead of the season.”

While NBL and maybe NBA bound star No.8 Roman Siulepa has been a standout in State High’s opening two wins, Kefu said a number of his players have impressed him in the early rounds of the season. 

“Roman is away this week with basketball commitments which is actually great timing with our bye but he’ll be back for the rest of the season after that,” the coach said. 

“He’s been fantastic to watch so far this year and he’s great for the players around him as well. 

“Eli Langi was great at No.6 for us against Toowoomba, he’s like another Roman at times. 

“Roman’s cousin Trent (Picot) is probably my height, but he wears a size 15 shoe so he’s going to grow a heap as well. 

“Cyrus Suniula is another great player at hooker. 

“Then probably the dark horse of our forward pack that probably doesn’t get the credit he deserves is Luke Thornton at lock. 

“He does a lot of the hard work which frees Roman up to play a bit looser. He’s a Brad Thorne type player who is sort of the glue to our forward pack.”

State High have a bye in round three then return to face an Ipswich side that challenged Nudgee in the opening round and beat Toowoomba last weekend. 

“They look to be a really good team and it’ll be interesting to see how they go against BBC this weekend after performing really well in a good win over Toowoomba,” Kefu said. 

“We know how tight the competition is this year and we’ve spoken to the guys about the fact that if they aren’t on their game every week, then anyone can beat them.”