Pride to take bull by horns
CONFIDENT Northern Pride coach Ty Williams has backed his side to win their next five matches but says they can ill-afford complacency against the last-placed Tweed Heads Seagulls.
The Pride are precariously placed on the Intrust Super Cup ladder with a 3-5 win-loss record, and another defeat would put them well out of touch with the top half of the competition.
Williams said his side had to take the bull by the horns early on at Barlow Park on Saturday and stop conceding tries in the opening 10 minutes as they have done in seven of nine games in 2017.
“We know our starts need to be better, and not be happy with conceding before we finally decide to go, we need to go from the word go,” he said.
“We need to say: ‘This is what it’s going to be like’ and then take it upon ourselves to do it. That’s something as a young playing squad we need to learn quickly.”
Williams said he expected an “upbeat” squad after most of them put their feet up for the bye week and he backed them to excel in matches against Tweed, Souths, CQ, Easts and Sunshine Coast in the next five weeks.
“They’ve had a full week off, plus the weekend off, obviously, and they were pretty positive after coming back from PNG,” he said. “We know we did some good things up there, that went unnoticed probably by people who sit in the grandstand but we know as a group that we did some good stuff.
“We’ve got a five-week block now – we know that we can win all five games.”
The Hunters and Seagulls may be at opposite ends of the spectrum on the ladder but Williams said he would “put a rocket up” his players if they thought of treating them any differently.
“We need to win this week. We need to worry about ourselves, to get our own house in order,” he said. “We’re not really worried about Tweed too much, but at the same time we need to show them the respect they deserve.”
Khan Ahwang has earned a recall at centre for Saturday’s match after a two-try effort in the position for Kangaroos in the CDRL on Sunday.
The 27-year-old played centre in the state competition at former club Burleigh and he could be there for the foreseeable future, with Jared Allen excelling at fullback.
Ahwang’s timely confidence boost has come at the ideal time for the Pride, who are still without Justin Castellaro due to a rib complaint and Bradley Stephen who has a serious shoulder tear that could be season-ending.