How does Nambour Toads, Maroochydore Swans and Nambour Crushers sound for the premierships in three sports codes this weekend?

What a feast of local football, plus junior rugby league, soccer and netball grand finals as well. There will be no lawns getting mowed this weekend.

Regular readers of this column will know I have no idea about picking outcomes, but may still be interested to know how I came up with the trifecta above.

In rugby, the Toads have been up there all year but appeared like they would again falter at the last hurdle, but a solid effort last week will stand them in good stead for today’s match-up against a red-hot University.

My thinking is the Toads have been on top all year so why should things change now.

In soccer, or football as they call it, both Maroochydore and Buderim have been locked together all year but my reasoning with this one is the Maroochydore side has more history together, while Buderim remind me of the Manly rugby league side in the ’80s.

They’re the silvertails.

In the local league, Noosa has been the form side all year.

The Pirates have both youth and experience and certainly will be hard to toss.

The Crushers are young and enthusiastic and seem to never ever give up. They have the knack of looking beaten and then all of a sudden they are back in the game.

If they are to have any chance of winning, their forwards are really going to have to aim up for the entire 80 minutes.

The key to them winning is a bloke in their pack who has always shown plenty of ability, but tends to be inconsistent.

Tomorrow he will have his chance, and I think he will take it. I won’t put his name in because there’s a couple of candidates who’ll think it’s them.

It should be a great game, as will the other grades.

See you at Wises Road from 9.30am.

Horses for courses

I had a few calls from Nambour Crushers supporters during the week and they all had the same joke.

It went something like: “Hey, have you heard the equine flu has had an effect on local rugby league as well as horse racing.”

Puzzled, the first time anyway, foolishly I asked why.

“Well, all the experts reckon the Maroochy RSL Cup was a two-horse race, Noosa and Kawana. It looks like the Dolphins must have got the equine flu, maybe the Pirates better hope they don’t get sneezed on as well.”

That’s not bad but I should make it clear that throughout the year I never heard Noosa or Kawana coaches saying it was a two-horse race, though plenty of others did.

I must admit I thought it a few times.

Hard work recognised

The Sunshine Coast Junior Rugby League dinner was held the other night and it was great to see a big attendance and, in particular, the player-of-the-year nominees in each grade.

It was fitting on the night that Maroochydore stalwart Paul McMillan was made a life member.

There were two things that struck me. Firstly, before it was announced, president Dave Cordwell gave a description on who the inductee was and as soon as he said “stubborn”, I knew he was talking about Macca.

The second thing was both Paul and Dave have been tireless in their work for local footy and both have made genuine efforts to get senior and junior rugby league closer together, and that is a good thing.

Well done.

Beards for bucks

Lorraine Hennessy rang the other day about Octobeard, which raises money for Caloundra High School and Primary School chaplain Stuart White.

Now I have attended a couple of functions over the years for school chaplains and they do a wonderful job in the education system but have little or no funding.

Lorraine is a staunch advocate of the program and all she is asking is for local blokes to grow a beard for the month of October and gather a few sponsors along the way.

If you are like me and can grow hair easier on your face and in your ears rather than on top of your head, put it to some use and give her a call on 0408 406 721 or check out the website, www.octobeard.com.au.