Our History
In the Club’s 16-year history, the Sunshine Coast Falcons have seen 70 players play for the Falcons and then go on to play in the NRL, including Local juniors Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, Trent Loiero and Tyson Smoothy.
The Club has also seen other players play in the NRL, such as Daly Cherry-Evans, Scott Drinkwater, Harry Grant, Chris Lewis, Darryn Schonig, Tui Kamikamica, Ryley Jacks and 2022 Dally M winner, Nicho Hynes, just to name a few.
The Sunshine Coast Falcons Rugby League Club was formed in 2006 as a pathway to the Queensland Cup for local Sunshine Coast players. The Falcons played in the reserve grade competition (FOGS Cup) for 3 years until they were accepted into the QLD Cup Intrust Super Cup competition in 2009.
The Club also formed a feeder-team affiliation with the Manly Sea Eagles NRL team in 2009 and re-branded from Sunshine Coast Falcons to Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles for the 2009 season. The newly-formed Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles went on to win the 2009 Intrust Super Cup Premiership in their first year, defeating the Northern Pride 32 – 18 in the Grand Final held at Kawana.
At the end of the 2010 season, the Club’s affiliation with the Manly Sea Eagles ended, but the Club continued to play on as the Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles. Without an NRL affiliation, the Club struggled to compete and was anchored toward the bottom of the QLD Cup ladder.
In 2014, the Club re-branded back to the Sunshine Coast Falcons and signed an NRL feeder team affiliation with NRL powerhouse, the Melbourne Storm, due to begin at the start of the 2015 season.
In 2016 the Falcons were defeated by the Redcliffe Dolphins in the Preliminary Final but returned the following year in 2017 to defeat the Dolphins in the Preliminary Final at Redcliffe and advance to the 2017 Intrust Super Cup Grand Final vs the Papua New Guinea Hunters held at Suncorp Stadium.
The Falcons led for most of the match until a late try by the Hunters sealed the 2017 Grand Final for the Hunters, 12 – 10. It was the first time a team outside QLD had won the QLD Cup.
In 2019 the Falcons won their first 14 games of the season and took out the 2019 Minor Premiership. Unfortunately, they were defeated in the Preliminary Final by the Burleigh Bears at Burleigh.
In 2022 the Falcons finished 2nd on the Hostplus Cup ladder but were defeated by the Norths Devils in the Preliminary Final at Norths. Norths went on to win the 2022 Hostplus Cup competition for the 2nd consecutive year.
As of 2023, the Club has five teams competing across QRL’s Hostplus Cup, U21s, U19 Womens, U18s and U16s competitions.
Our Mission
The SC Falcons is committed to providing opportunities and pathways for our players, engaging with our community, connecting our members and sponsors and growing grassroots participation.
James Ackerman
James ‘Ackers’ Ackerman was a Falcons local junior who tragically passed away during a QLD Cup game vs Norths Devils at Bishop Park in 2015.
Ackers was a tough football player that wore his heart on his sleeve and gave 100% effort and commitment to his teammates each and every time he pulled on a Falcons jersey, or any jersey for that matter. He was a player that all of his teammates wanted beside because they knew that he would never let them down during the heat of battle.
Ackers is survived by his wife Saraa, children Ollie and Milly and parents Michael and Sonya, as well as his brothers Andrew and Tom.
The SC Falcons and Redcliffe Dolphins face off in the James Ackerman Cup each year as part of the Hostplus Cup calendar to honour James’ legacy. In 2023, the James Ackerman Cup will be played at the Sunshine Coast Stadium on the 27th of May.
In James’ honour, jersey number 8 has been retired, and the SC Falcons Hostplus Cup player of the year medal is named after James – the James Ackerman Medal. Previous medal winners have included Harry Grant, Ryley Jacks, Dane Hogan, Patrice Siolo, Tom Murphy, Jon Grieve and Luke Polselli.
The Falcons’ victory song ends with the words – every time we win, we are doing it for Ackers!
