Bond upbeat for next season

BOND University’s storming run home in Queensland Premier Rugby is proof they have the talent to mount a serious title challenge in 2019, according to coach Grant Anderson.

The Bullsharks ended their campaign with a come-frombehind 38-33 victory away to Norths in Saturday’s Round 18 encounter at Wooloowin, finishing the season with eight wins and a draw from their last 10 games.

Heartbreakingly, it left them a solitary point outside the top four having lost five of their first six, but Anderson said the signs were positive for the future.

“We’ve proven to ourselves and rest of the comp that we belong here and we can mix it with the best teams week in, week out,” Anderson, in his fourth year as head coach, said.

“We’ve done a lot of work building a culture in the club the players want to be a part of. A lot of the guys have indicated they want to be part of what we’re building.

“Something we need to address in our end-of-season review (is) how we started the season. We’ve got a fairly new group of players so hopefully we can get some of these guys returning and we can get a better start next season.”

Norths led 14-12 at halftime on Saturday but were run down as tries from Tainui Ford (two), Angus Blyth, Mitch Third, Corbin Kiernan, and Pierce Fitzgerald gave the visitors the a bonus-point win.

Anderson admitted the Bullsharks had been left to rue their poor start to the year, but said he was “proud of the way the guys dug in”.

“The boys worked really hard for each other all season and in the second half of the season they’ve found a way to win and they did that again, which was great. We had a lot of new players to the club (this season) and building that team cohesion and trust took a little bit longer (than we hoped).

“The team’s faced a lot of challenges this year … and I think how the boys have reacted, particularly after losing to Souths 63-36 (in Round 6), to come home with the success we’ve had in the second half of the season has been really pleasing.”