PRIDE LOOKING FOR OLD HEADS
NORTHERN Pride coach Ty Williams says adding a few experienced heads to the club’s roster will be a top priority for the upcoming off-season.
The Pride will lose 190 games worth of Queensland Cup experience when co-captains Tom Hancock and David Murphy finish up this season, but the club has already been working to fill the void, according to the coach.
“The wheels are in motion already for us and we’ve planted a few seeds around the place,” Williams said.
“It’s the first time since I’ve been coach here that we’re being proactive with all that stuff.
“We’ve got a few things in place to hopefully cover those guys that are retiring.”
While the club will ramp up its recruitment activities compared to previous years, Williams said it would stay true to the region it represents as much as possible.
“The guys that we’re looking to talk to have come through some sort of Northern Pride (or) Cairns connection along the way as well,” he said.
“That’s not saying that all the guys we’re looking to recruit have, but there’s more than a handful that have.
“It’s a focus of ours, seeing if we can get the guys that were born in this area to come back home, and that’s something we need to push pretty hard.”
With co-captains Hancock and Murphy both playing their last game for the club this weekend, the Pride will also be on the hunt for a new leader.
Williams said it was too early to speculate who will take up the captaincy in 2020, with the option to recruit someone for the role or promote a current player at the club.
“We’ll see how the guys train in the off-season and who puts their hand up in pressure situations and move forward from there,” he said.
“Are we looking for a guy that’s verbally very good and ticks the boxes with his actions on the field? Or, do we just have a guy that’s all action and doesn’t talk too much?
“We as a club will sit down and just see exactly what kind of leader we want to take us into the future.”
The Pride will play their last match of the season against Tweed Seagulls at Piggabeen Sports Complex on Saturday.
In the only change to the line-up that defeated Easts Tigers 18-16 on the weekend, Quinlyn Cannon drops out of the side, with Jordan BiondiOdo named at hooker.
Cannon will play for Brothers in Sunday’s Cairns District Rugby League elimination final against Atherton.