WE OWE THE PRIDE
SCOTT SAYS THANKS
NORTHERN Pride players, administrators and fans will celebrate a decade of success tonight and one of the Cowboys’ greatest admits the club would be nowhere without it.
Injured prop Matt Scott will attend the festivities to mark the “massively important” role the Pride has played in putting Far North talent on the NRL path.
Two Intrust Super Cup titles in 2010 and 2014 show on-field success, but development has always been paramount and Scott said that strength was the key to Cowboys past and future success.
“Feeder clubs are an integral part of how NRL clubs operate and we’ve had some great players come through and there’s none better than from the Northern Pride,” he said.
“In the premiership year in 2015, we were able to have some of our best results during the State of Origin period and that was down to the guys we were calling up from our feeder clubs like the Pride.
“It has been a very talented area even before the Pride. You look as far back as Ty Williams, Matty Bowen, Rod Jensen, Joel Riethmuller, the list goes on.”
Scott said you only had to look at Coen Hess, who has become an Origin sensation 12 months after cutting his teeth in senior footy with the Northern Pride, to see what players could achieve given the right breeding ground.
Cowboys football manager Peter Parr, who first heard the pitch for the new club from founders Denis Keeffe and John O’Brien 10 years ago, said the Pride had “achieved what they set out to do” and been hugely successful at it.
“The people of Cairns should be very proud,” he said.
“The Pride have done an excellent job in nurturing and developing quality players.
“It was originally set up for exactly that, to give local players the opportunity to play at a higher level.
“I think this has more to do with the Pride and their achievements more than anything to with the Cowboys, being so successful in their own right.”
Northern Pride CEO Greg Dowling said Scott’s attendance at the 10th anniversary celebrations was a tremendous nod to their link with the club’s achievements to be marked tonight. “It’s just great to have all these people in one place to celebrate,” he said.