The Sunshine Coast Falcons are a

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

football team based on

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

's Sunshine Coast. They compete in the

Queensland Cup The Queensland Cup, currently known as the Hostplus Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the highest-level regional rugby league, rugby league football competition in Queensland, Australia. It is run by the Queensland Rugby League, Queensland Rugby ...

and their home ground is Sunshine Coast Stadium. The Falcons are currently affiliated with the

NRL The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

team

Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm is a rugby league football club based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia that participates in the National Rugby League (NRL). The club plays its home games at AAMI Park, and wears a purple and navy blu ...

History

The Falcons were originally the Winfield State League representative team for the Sunshine Coast. First competing in the 1993 season, they won their pool before losing in the semi-finals. For the 1994 season, they competed as Sunshine Coast/Gympie, against winning the pool matches, but losing both semi-final matches. In the last year of the State League, the combined Sunshine Coast/Gympie team failed to progress from the pool stage. They competed in the first season of the

in 1996 but dropped out the following season. In 2006, the club joined the FOGS Cup competing in the second-level competition. The club finished their first season in sixth position, just outside the finals positions.

Partnership with Manly (2009–2010)

In 2009, they were readmitted to the Queensland Cup after securing an agreement with the NRL's

Manly Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL). The Manly club debuted in the 1947 New South Wales Rugby Football League seaso ...

to become a feeder club. Between 2009 and 2013 the club was renamed the Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles due to the partnership with the Manly Sea Eagles. The partnership instantly proved successful with the team winning the 2009 Queensland Cup Grand Final 32–18 to secure their first premiership, with a number of Manly players in the squad. Following the end of the 2010 season, Manly were forced to cut ties with the club after a change in policy disallowed NRL teams from having feeder clubs in both the

and

New South Wales Cup The NSW Cup, currently known as the Knock-On Effect NSW Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. The competition has a history dating back to the NSWRFL's origins in 1908, starting off as a reserve ...

Partnership with Melbourne Storm (2014–)

In 2014 the club reverted to the Falcons name and struck a three-year partnership with the

from the 2015 season. The Falcons endured a 36-game losing streak during the 2013 and 2014 seasons, on their way to consecutive wooden spoons. In May 2021, Melbourne extended their affiliation partnership with the Falcons to the end of the 2024 season.

Life Members

In September 2021, the club awarded the first life memberships of the club: * Don Oxenham – Inaugural CEO and former board member * Dave Cordwell – Coach (Colts: 2009–10; FOGs Cup: 2011; Queensland Cup: 2012–13) and former board member * Alan Marr – Board member 2009–19 * Gordon Oakes – Chairman 2006–13

Season Summaries

Honours

Queensland Cup

* Premierships: 1 (

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

) * Runners Up: 1 (

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

) * Minor Premiership: 1 (

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

) * Duncan Hall Medal: 1 ( Tony Williams – 2009) *

Petero Civoniceva Petero Civoniceva ( (Thee-vo-nee-thee-vah); born 21 April 1976), is a Fijian-Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. A Queensland State of Origin and Australian international represent ...

Medal: 1 ( Daly Cherry-Evans – 2010) * Rookie of the Year: 2 ( Daly Cherry-Evans – 2010); ( Brandon Smith – 2017) * Coach of the Year: 1 (Eric Smith – 2019)

Junior

* Hastings Deering Colts: 1 (2019)

Players

Representatives

The following players have played representative football for the Queensland Residents in the annual match against NSW Residents while playing for the Falcons. *

Trent Hodkinson Trent Hodkinson (born 31 August 1988) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a in the National Rugby League, NRL. He played for the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles in two separate spells, the Canterbury-Bankstow ...

(2009) * Daly Cherry-Evans (2010 - captain) * Jamie Buhrer (2010) * Ben Hampton (2015) * Kenny Bromwich (2015) * Jahrome Hughes (2017) * Lachlan Timm (2018) *

Tino Fa'asuamaleaui Tino Fa'asuamaleaui () (born 16 February 2000) is a professional rugby league footballer who captains the Gold Coast Titans playing as a Lock (rugby league), lock and Prop (rugby league), prop forward in the National Rugby League (NRL). He has ...

(2019) * Darryn Schonig (2019)

Awards

The James Ackerman Medal is awarded to the Sunshine Coast Falcons Player of the Year. The award is named in honour of the late James Ackerman, who died from injuries sustained in a tackle while playing for the Falcons against Norths Devils in 2015.

Personnel

Coaches

* 2009 – 2010 — Brandon Costin * 2011 — Adam Mogg * 2012 – 2013 — Dave Cordwell * 2014 — Ivan Henjak (quit midseason, replaced by Glen Dreger) * 2015 — Glen Dreger * 2016 – 2018 — Craig Ingebrigtsen * 2019 — Eric Smith * 2020 – 2021 — Sam Mawhinney * 2022 – present – Brad Henderson

Name, logo and colours

The Falcons historic colours have been black and gold however when the Manly Sea Eagles announced their partnership with the Falcons the club rebranded to become the Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles and the colours changed to Manly's colours of maroon and white. When the feeder arrangement ended the club continued with the name but changed the colours to blue and white. However fans and players on the Sunshine Coast called for a return to the clubs traditional name and colours and in the 2014 season the club complied, rebranding back to the Falcons with gold and black colours. Image:Sunshine Coast Falcons logo.jpg, Before 2008 Image:Sunshine coast sea eagles.png, 2008-10
During link with Manly Image:Sunshine coast sea eagles 2011.png, 2011-13 Image:Sunshine_Coast_Falcons_logo_2014.png, 2014–present

Stadium

The Falcons home ground is Sunshine Coast Stadium, located in Kawana Waters. In both 2020 and 2021, Falcons' affiliated

club

were forced to relocate to the Sunshine Coast Stadium due to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic in Australia The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia was a part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first confirmed case in Aust ...

Major Sponsors

* Vantage Homes Queensland
Sunshine Toyota
* South East Civil * Bebrok Excavations * Sunshine Coast Council * FC Lawyers * Green RV * North Coast Foods * Go Turf
Southern Cross Sheds
* Maroochy RSL * Pacific Office Solutions * Channel 9 * Sea FM * Sunshine Coast Daily * Asset Electrical Contractors * Headland Plumbing & Drainage * L & H Electrical * Subway

References

External links

Website

Facebook
{{Rugby League in Queensland Sport in the Sunshine Coast, Queensland Rugby league teams in Queensland Rugby clubs established in 1996