The Hastings Deering Colts was a junior rugby league competition based in Queensland, contested among teams made up of players aged 21 or under. The competition was administered by the Queensland Rugby League (QRL), and was contested by fourteen teams, thirteen of which are located in Queensland and one in New South Wales.
From 2018 to 2020, the Hastings Deering Colts was an under-20 competition before moving to an under-21 format for the 2021 to 2023 seasons.
Before the advent of the Hastings Deering Colts, there had been no statewide, full season under-20 competition in Queensland. The FOGS Colts Challenge, which ran from 1986 to 2017, only featured sides from South East Queensland. From 2008 to 2017, the National Rugby League (NRL) administered their own under-20 competition, the National Youth Competition (NYC), which featured the three Queensland-based NRL clubs, the Brisbane Broncos, Gold Coast Titans and North Queensland Cowboys, and a plethora of young players from the state.
In 2016, the NRL announced that the National Youth Competition would be discontinued after the 2017 season, in favour of state-based under-20 competitions, administered by the Queensland Rugby League (QRL) and New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL).[3]
In 2017, in preparation for the new competition, the QRL ran a shortened, statewide under-20 competition called the FOGS U20s Cup. The competition, which was won by the Redcliffe Dolphins, ran over nine-weeks, alongside the Mal Meninga Cup, and featured all 15 teams who would eventually participate in the Hastings Deering Colts.[4][5]
On 12 October 2017, the QRL announced the Hastings Deering Colts as the state's under-20 competition, running alongside the senior Queensland Cup competition, with 13 Queensland Cup sides fielding a team in the inaugural season.[1] On 9 October 2018, the Victoria Thunderbolts left the competition after one season to return to the NSWRL setup, joining the Jersey Flegg Cup.[6]
On 17 March 2020, two days after the completion of Round One, the QRL announced a 10-week suspension of the competition until 5 June, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[7] On 27 March, ten days after the suspension, the QRL confirmed the cancellation of the competition for the 2020 season.[8][9]
On 19 October 2020, the QRL announced that the competition would return in 2021 and would be played under an under-21 format.[10]
In August 2023, the QRL announced that the competition would be discontinued after the 2023 season, with players not eligible for the under-19 Mal Meninga Cup to play for Queensland Cup senior teams or A-Grade teams in district competitions.[2]
In October 2019, QRL Chief Operating Officer Rohan Sawyer announced that Caterpillar equipment supplier, Hastings Deering, would continue as the naming rights sponsor of the competition from 2020 until 2022.[11]
The Hastings Deering Colts consisted of 14 teams, 13 from Queensland, and 1 from New South Wales, and operates on a single group system, with no divisions or conferences and no relegation and promotion from other leagues.
Much like the Queensland Cup, each club in the competition has an affiliation with a team in the NRL.
The Hastings Deering Colts followed the same regular season format as the Queensland Cup, with games usually played as curtain-raisers to the senior fixtures. Beginning in early March, a round of regular season games is then played almost every weekend for twenty-three weeks, ending in early September. Unlike the Queensland Cup, the Hastings Deering Colts features three full rounds where every team receives a bye and a split round in Round 19. These rounds are scheduled in to accommodate university exam periods.[12][13]
Teams receive two competition points for a win, and one point for a draw. The bye also receives two points; a loss, no points. Teams on the ladder are ranked by competition points, then match points differential (for and against) and points percentage are used to separate teams with equal competition points. At the end of the regular season, the club which is ranked highest on the ladder is declared minor premiers.
After using a top six final series system in 2018, the competition followed the Queensland Cup in adopting a top eight final series for the 2019 season.[13][14] The eight finalists are split into two groups for the opening week of the finals series. The top four teams have the best chance of winning the premiership and play the two Qualifying Finals. The winners get a bye through to Week Three of the finals to play home Preliminary Finals, while the losers play home Semi-Finals in Week Two. The bottom four teams play the two Elimination Finals, where the winners advance to Week Two away games and the losers' seasons are over.
The winners of two Preliminary Finals then contest the Grand Final, which is played in late September as a curtain-raiser to the Queensland Cup Grand Final.
