SPORT Oh baby, I’ll keep the faith

NORTHERN Pride players have Joe O’Callaghan’s daughter to thank for the coach’s decision not to throw the baby out with the bathwater following their Mackay horror show.

Despite the frustration of Sunday’s last-gasp loss, the Intrust Super Cup premiers yesterday named an unchanged side for the Round 13 showdown with Davin Crampton’s Tweed.

NQ Marlins quartet Regan Verney, Bradley Stephen, Travis Peeters and Denzel King were not considered for selection while Semi Tadulala (hamstring), Graham Clark (leg) and Vaipuna Tia Kilifi (ankle) must undergo fitness tests.

O’Callaghan admitted while frustrated at his team’s poor handling against the Cutters, he had plenty of time to mull over any changes thanks to one-year-old daughter Emilia.

“Hindsight is a great thing,” he said.

“It’s great having a daughter that doesn’t sleep during the night because you get to stay up and have a good think. She doesn’t care if we win or lose.

“If you have a look at our stats ... we actually smashed some of our minimum standards this week except for one – completion.

“So in regards to wielding the axe, I maybe gave a few warnings and tapped them on the shoulder to remind them that some individual errors aren’t good enough.”

The greatest difficulty of any ISC coach remains being able to lift a group of semi-professional footballers, most of whom have finished long days at work before heading to training.

With morale-boosting wins against Wynnum and Sunshine Coast offset by losses to PNG and now Mackay in the past month, the Pride sit on the precipice.

Halfway through the competition, a win could send them to sixth; a loss could send them spiralling.

The genuine fear is not being able to snap the trend of inconsistency.

“It’s hard at O’Callaghan said.

“June is the traditional down time in the footy year; everyone is up at the start of the year and the end of the year.”

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