Cyril Connell Challenge: Difference between revisions

|most_champs={{league icon|Norths Devils|16px16}} [[Norths Devils]]

| website = [https://wwwweb.webcitationarchive.org/5ixoMf0lw?url=web/20090914003253/http://www.qrl.com.au/ www.QRL.com.au]

'''The Cyril Connell Challenge''' is an under-16 competition administered by the Queensland Rugby League. First run in 2021, the competition replaced the QRL Junior State Championships, which ran from 2017 to 2020. The 20302020 competition was ultimately cancelled in the wake of the COVID pandemic before the tournament re-commenced in a round robin format for the 2021 season. Originally known as The '''Cyril Connell Cup''' the competition, which began in 2009, included the junior representative teams of [[Queensland Cup]] clubs. The competition also featured teams from [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]] and the [[Northern Territory]]. In the 2016 season, the Cyril Connell Cup consisted of sixteen clubs: fifteen based within in [[Queensland]] and one in [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]]. Eleven of the sixteen clubs were junior representative teams for [[Queensland Cup]] clubs. From 2011 to 2016, the winners of the Grand Final played the winners of the New South Wales’ under-16 competition, the [[Harold Matthews Cup]], in the National Final.

In 2021 The Cyril Connell Challenge comprised 15 teams from across the state split into 3 pools. Thirteen of the fifteen clubs were junior representative teams for [[Queensland Cup]] clubs. [[Tweed_Heads_Seagulls|Tweed Heads Seagulls]] and [[Redcliffe_Dolphins|Redcliffe Dolphins]] finished equal top of the ladder after going undefeated during their campaigns. Redcliffe would remain undefeated, topping the table in both the 2022 and 2023 editions of the tournament.