Rep teams do battle

Coach wants charges to lift another level

REPRESENTATIVE Football was back in north Queensland at the weekend with Townsville hosting the best of the Far North.

The local FNQ Football competition had a representative round bye on the weekend as the newly introduced Frank Farina Cup competition was completed.

The FNQ Women beat their NQ counterparts 3-2 at Brolga Park, Townsville on Saturday and following their match, the FNQ Men’s side was beaten by NQ Men 5-2 in an exciting contest.

INNISFAIL United’s Premier Youth squad will be put through a tough week of training after a lacklustre 2-0 win over Leichhardt Lions on Sunday.

The catch-up fixture was the third meeting between the two sides in the past four weeks, with Innisfail winning all three.

The Lions travelled to Castor Park with only 11 players and did well to restrict the Cutters to two goals, which had Innisfail coach Marc Di Carlo questioning his side’s enthusiasm.

“I think it definitely should’ve been more than two goals,” Di Carlo said.

“We were definitely taking this game seriously – we needed the win (to maintain first spot on the ladder).

“We tried a few different things because we wanted to use this game to prepare for Mareeba this weekend but I think the boys just took it too easy.

“They were lacking energy, so we’ll fix that at training this week; we’ll look at spicing things up and lifting the intensity.”

Although Innisfail were without key players Zane Connolly, Ethan Crossland and Jordan Davies, who are all set to return this weekend, Di Carlo said this was no excuse for his side’s “slow” performance.

“You can’t underestimate sides like this,” he said.

The FNQ Football competition had a representative round bye on the weekend due to the Frank Farina Cup.

The FNQ Women beat their NQ counterparts 3-2 at Brolga Park, Townsville, on Saturday.

Following the women’s match, the FNQ Men’s side was beaten by NQ Men 5-2.

Leichhardt Lions will host Stratford Dolphins to kick off Round 18 this Saturday.

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