Milestone makers go head-to-head in sevens

CENTENARIANS Atherton and Babinda will entertain the Barlow Park crowd with a unique seven-a-side match on Saturday to raise awareness of each club’s 100th anniversary celebrations.

The teams will play the first half of their match at halftime of the Northern Pride v Cairns Connection curtain-raiser, then the second half during the break in the Cowboys v Tigers NRL trial match.

The Roosters have named a young squad, including 2017 under-19 player of the year Connor Griffin (pictured left) and A-grade tryscoring machine Nigel Woodleigh, to contest the match.

Atherton Roosters secretary Darryl Day said it was a good opportunity to promote the milestone.

The club has a massive program of events planned for 2018, with the main celebration including a dinner, march and rivalry match against Mareeba on the weekend of June 15-17.

A 100th anniversary book will also be released and a museum full of Roosters memorabilia will be set up in Atherton leading into the celebrations.

Babinda do not have senior teams, maintaining teams in the Innisfail junior competition, but coach Nathan Panabianco said the club had roped in some former Colts, including Southern Suburbs’ Roland Gallen (pictured right) to join the fun.

“Hopefully we’ll go all right. I just got a couple of players from Leprechauns and Suburbs and that and I picked them because they’re going to be a lot fitter than the other blokes,” he said.

“The boys can have a bit of fun too.”

Babinda’s main celebration will take place on the May Day weekend and include a ball, and junior and masters games. The club will also produce a book.