The former Red Devils' Brothers side were upset by the University of Queensland in Sunday's Newstead Brewing Hospital Challenge Cup decider, the Red Heavies holding on as the minor premiers stormed home to claim the silverware 31-26.

Down 31-14 midway through the second half, the Brethen set up a grandstand finish when they closed within a try in the dying minutes.

Noted strong finishers, another five minutes and Wilson believes they could have got there.

Lining up at number eight, he was heavily involved in the early passages with a couple of strong runs, and almost muscled his way over to get Brothers on the board but was ruled to be held up.

A couple of minutes later they did post their first points after their scrum monstered UQ's.

But it was hard work for the Brethren after that with the Red Heavies starving them of possession and blunting them at the tackle contest.

"That was probably one of their main plans, to keep us away from the ball; they know when we have the ball we can score points," Wilson said.

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As they showed in the final 15 minutes, their offloading game starting to punch holes in the UQ defence.

Wilson, who was awarded the Alec Evans Medallist as the Queensland Premier Rugby player of the year, had spoken in the lead-up about how he would love to be involved in a premiership with Brothers and was understandably "still hurting" when he spoke to the Namoi Valley Independent on Tuesday.

"This one will take a while to get over," he said.

"We had a great opportunity to win it and we blew it."

Fortunately he doesn't have too much time to dwell on the disappointment with Queensland Country playing Brisbane City in a trial this weekend, and the NRC kicking off the following weekend.

About to hit the training paddock with Queensland Country, Wilson said it was good to have something to get straight back into.

"I thought about that this morning. I was chatting to my brother - he won his third grade grand final.

"I was happy to get straight into things otherwise I'd be thinking about it for the next few months," he said.

This season will be his second taste of the NRC.

"I obviously learnt a lot last year from playing with them," he said.

"This year I want to get a bit more involved and help them out a bit more."

Queensland Country kick off their campaign against the Western Force in Perth on August 31.