The McDonalds Seagulls Academy Hastings Deering Colts travelled to Rockhampton over the weekend to take on the Central QLD Capras.
The winner would enjoy a week off and head to a preliminary final in two weeks time, while the loser would get a second chance this coming weekend.
Wynnum Manly, despite finishing 1st, were the away team to the Capras, who finished 4th, as the Colts schedule follows the Hostplus Cup schedule in finals.
Central QLD opened the scoring before Seagulls captain Ethan Malt replied in the 9th minute.
Then the Capras scored twice in 4 minutes to hold a 16-4 lead.
Seagulls try-scoring forward Felix Faatili then did what he does best – pushed his way past multiple defenders and scored near the posts.
Capras then had a player sin-binned in the 39th minute, but took a 16-10 lead into half time.
Despite being a man down, the Capras scored in the 42nd minute and also kicked a penalty goal to put 8 points on the board with only 12 men on the field.
There was a sense that a Seagulls fightback was coming – they are too good a team to play well at some point.
However, two Seagulls sin bins stalled their progress as they continued to make big metres across all of their sets.
The Seagulls were unlucky as they were disallowed 4 tries via forward passes, obstruction and a knock on in the in-goal area.
Blake Moore took an intercept and ran 80m to give the Seagulls some hope with two minutes remaining, however the Capras just held on to scrape home for the win.
In promising signs for the Seagulls, they only went down by 4 points to a good Capras side, in a performance riddled with ill-discipline and handling errors.
The boys from the Bayside will be much better for the run and now head back home to face Tweed Seagulls at BMD Kougari Oval this weekend. Game time to be released by QRL soon.