PANDEMIC FORCES PLAYERS TO SWITCH CODES:
CORONAVIRUS HAS WREAKED HAVOC WITH MAJOR COMPETITIONS THIS YEAR BUT, IN THE ABSENCE OF SOME OF THE REGION’S TYPICAL TOP LEAGUES, AN OPPORTUNITY AROSE FOR FAR NORTH ATHLETES TO TEST THEMSELVES IN OTHER SPORTS. THE CAIRNS POST SPORTS TEAM LOOKS AT SOME OF THE BIGGEST CODE-HOPPERS FROM 2020.
THERE’S always an opportunity with crisis.
Major local sports leagues and clubs like the CDRL, the Northern Pride, the Northern Rays, the QBL with the Marlins and Dolphins are enduring modified, or no 2020 seasons at all, due to the coronavirus impact around the state. While it is difficult to find positives about a pandemic sweeping the world, many other FNQ sporting clubs and leagues have benefited from other codes shutting down, or altering their regular seasons.
League players for their entire lives are switching across to that sport’s biggest rival nationally, Aussie rules, while high-level basketballers and netballers are trying their hand at a different style game this year.
Cairns Dolphins stalwarts Myra Donkin and Jade Kennedy have traded their basketball shorts for netball dresses this season, signing on with new Senior Division 1 team Phoenix Fierce.
Phoenix co-captain Tarin Moke said Kennedy was making a successful transition to the sport and had been making an impact in the early rounds.
“She’s definitely stood out,” Moke said.
“We’ve thrown her into the defensive end and the shooting end and she’s done really well at both ends.”
Moke said the QBL star had all the makings of a Senior Division 1 netballer.
“I think once she gets the hang of going for the ball with two hands, she’ll be able to get a lot more intercepts,” she said.
“And just having her eyes up, because in basketball they tend to defend with their backs to the ball, whereas in netball we face forward.
“But once she gets her footwork right and her body positioning, I think she’ll be pretty unstoppable.”
Kennedy, one of the QBL’s best forwards, also plays Aussie rules with North Cairns Tigers.
Fellow former Cairns Dolphin and current Australian Opal and Melbourne Boomer Cayla George has also joined the Fierce this season.
After a strong outing at goal shooter in Round 1, the towering WNBL centre was shifted to goal keeper in the second round, showing her versatility.
“Obviously, she’s pretty hard to shoot over because she’s that tall,” Moke said.
“Also, just being able to get all the little tips inside the shooting circle. She was pretty dominant there.”
George said she decided to return to the local competition, which she won with North Cairns Tigers in 2011, to keep fit and to also get back into a team environment.
“I’ve been around one my whole life, so to not have one for the last six months has been a bit odd,” she said.
“It’s great to have that again and just to run around and get a bit of a sweat up.
“I get pretty competitive, as everyone does, so it’s good to get out there and have that competitive mindset for the first time in a while as well.”
George should have been competing at this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo and is hopeful of returning to Melbourne to join her Boomers teammates in the coming months, with the WNBL set to start on November 22.
Rising AFL Cairns star Lily Munro, who was part of the Suns Academy as a junior, is also playing netball this season for Leprechauns.
Northern Pride regulars Evan Child and Jack Campagnolo made their local AFL Cairns debuts last Saturday at Cazalys Stadium, with the Q-Cup long called off.
They both more than held their own and while Campagnolo has all the physical tools to succeed with a Sherrin in hand, he has a lot to learn about game sense and when to run or look to defend.
Hawks coach Brad Sinclair says it may take years for the pair to fully understand the game if they did not grow up with it, but it remains to be seen if they will be with the sport for that long.
“Campagnolo loves it, he just wants to learn, question after question from him, he wants to get better,” Sinclair said.
“It was their first game of senior football on Saturday against Saints, they played on some good players and we felt that would be the best way for them to learn, getting among it.
“I am really happy with them. Their attitude to training has been sensational.”
With as many as four games and two AFL clubs “hubbing” in FNQ in the coming weeks
and months, Sinclair feels the code will be the flavour over the year across the region, with many more looking to try the game because of its increased profile and attention.
Cross-code athletes are not new at Hawks. Emerging QBL basketballer Mason Khalu, who trained with the Taipans last NBL season, has been with the club at times over the past few years and is back in brown and gold in 2020.
The athletic youngster has been joined by Marlins teammate Joel Matysek, who actually signed with the Toowoomba Mountaineers before state league basketball was shut down a few months ago, but is now back in town.
“They are great people to work with,” Sinclair said of the elite basketballers at his club.
“They have a bit of height, and we need that, and their hand-eye to ball control is very good. We just need to teach them the positional stuff, which is a bit difficult from a structure perspective.
“We will take anyone who wants to learn.”
Rugby union has been a major benefactor of the CDRL’s decision to cancel its regular season.
Former Cowboys flyer Giedon Gela-Mosby is perhaps the highest profile of the codehoppers, with fellow Pride members Heilum Luki, Taulata Fakalelu and Ewan Moore adding to the long list. While the games are similar, there is a bit of getting used to.
“It’s a bit different out there (but) I’m still adjusting to the game,” said Gela-Mosby, who played 11 NRL games between 2017 and 2019.
“I kept looking over to the bench for some guidance. The big difference is how the ball is used. You don’t get as much of the ball but there’s a bit more space.”
FNQ Rugby hit social media within minutes of the CDRL’s decision earlier this year, calling for men and women who wanted to play a contact sport to get in touch.
Several players from the inaugural Women’s 10s competition were set to suit up in both codes, like legend Jo Kerr, who turned out for Mudcrabs, with league’s cancellation allowing them to focus on rugby.
Bradley Stephen made a similar comparison after his rugby debut, where he made several incisive runs late in the game and won it for Wanderers with a last-minute penalty.
Stephen, a former Northern Pride-contracted centre who was set to suit up for Kangaroos this year, has played a key role in Wanderers’ first wins since returning to the FNQ Rugby A-grade competition.
“You get less ball but more space, as it’s more forward oriented up in the middle,” Stephen said.
“You get more space to play with out wide.”