Pride will be on the line
NORTHERN Pride have one goal for this Saturday’s final home game for the season ... don’t disappoint the fans.
“The lads will be focused to not only repay the blokes they play with but also the loyal supporters and sponsors we have,” coach Ty Williams said.
The Pride host eighth-placed Easts Tigers.
NORTHERN Pride will go into their last home game for the season with a simple aim: get a win for the Barlow Park faithful.
The Pride host the eighthplaced Easts Tigers on Saturday and coach Ty Williams said his expectations of the playing group were clear.
“Each and every one of the boys needs to be putting their best foot forward,” he said.
“We’ve got to remember two weeks ago we played Norths and got touched up fairly heavy here in front of our home crowd and that’s just not acceptable.
“Our clear focus this week is making sure that doesn’t happen. The lads will be focused to not only repay the blokes they play with but also the loyal supporters and sponsors we have.”
Williams said the side had taken a lot of confidence out of last week’s competitive showing against premiership contenders Burleigh Bears.
He said players would be putting the heat on themselves to back up the much-improved performance in front of a home crowd.
“We’ve got a different mixture of players in there than what we did a couple of weeks ago, but the lads can build on last week,” he said.
“I expect the best out of the players because of the standards we set – they’re very high standards and we need to be up to it week in, week out.”
Since their last win, a 34-14 defeat of PNG Hunters at Barlow Park on June 30, the Pride have copped three 40-pluspoint hammerings from topeight sides Sunshine Coast, Townsville and, most recently Norths Devils.
However, courageous performances against Ipswich, Souths Logan and the finalsbound Burleigh throughout the same period suggest the Pride aren’t far off snatching a fifth win of the season.
Williams said it would be satisfying to finish the season on a high at home, but it will be a tough ask against an Easts side bolstered by a “fairly big influx” of Melbourne Storm allocations, with the likes of Billy Walters, Marion Seve and Solomone Kata expected to line up for the Tigers.
Co-captain David Murphy has been named to start despite picking up an ankle injury against the Bears last week.
“We’ll manage him all week, but it’s not as bad as what we first thought,” Williams said.
“He’s pulled up OK and he should be good to go.”
North Queensland Cowboys flyer Gideon Gela-Mosby could be a late inclusion at the expense of Shawn Bowen or Matthew Musumeci.