Pride ready for Hunting party

THE Pride will be playing a different brand of footy when the Cairns team flies into Papua New Guinea this weekend.

Coming off a hard-fought loss to Easts Tigers last week, Ty Williams’ boys will be pitted against defending premiers the PNG Hunters – who are 11th on the table and desperate to keep their final hopes alive.

“They are aggressive, we need to tighten up defensively,” coach Williams said.

“They will give us chances because that’s the way they play football.

“They are physically big, they just love to run – they don’t care.”

The PNG crowds would be something that the newer Pride players are not accustomed to.

“It is a rugby league crazy country,” Williams said.

“They generally pack it in when you get to the airport, which will be interesting for the young fellas.

“At the game there are 12,000-14,000 people there.”

The expanded team roster includes Matthew Musumeci at number 20, ready to take the field if Shawn Bowen’s passport dramas are not resolved.

“Shaun Bowen is a bit up in the air whether he gets to PNG,” Williams said.

A PNG game would be wel- come for Bowen, who made his mark with halfback Jake Campognolo against the Tigers last weekend.

Campognolo kicked off the match’s scoring in the 11th minute, followed by a double to Shawn Bowen in the 13th and 17th minutes, to lead 14-0 after 18 minutes.

Bowen and Campognolo were added to the team roster last week to replace Jake Clifford and Murray Tualagi, who were given the nod to join the Maroon’s under-20s team.

“They (Bowen and Campognolo) are both good prospects,” Williams said.

“If anything, both of them had the opportunity to learn about the back end of the game.

“You have to keep playing at the high level with all the toing and fro-ing.”

He said league “does not get any tougher” than playing against the Hunters in PNG.

“They are probably playing for their season and we need to be very good across the board to get a result.”