Norths out to polish off few rusty Barron players

NORTHS vice-captain Chris Stanger says his side will be out to make things difficult for some Barron players who haven’t played first grade since September in Round 4 CFN first grade one-day action today at Crathern Park.

Barron had a Round 3 bye followed by a first grade break for the North Queensland Open Zone Championships, which featured all-rounder Paul Carbone and strike spin bowler Mick Salerno.

Stanger said the pair were the obvious danger men in what he felt was the strongest team in the competition and said he had a few plans up his sleeve to quell the impact of their two gun players.

“Obviously Mick Salerno has been doing his thing in Cairns for a number of years now and I think playing with him at rep level gives me a bit of an advantage knowing the way he bowls,” he said.

“Barron looks to be the pick of the teams this year so it’s really important for us to get a win in this game.

“It’s good to get back into the groove and play a few games in a row to get some momentum up before the Christmas break.”

Norths will be without hard-hitting Anton Booy but Stanger said there was plenty of artillery in the middle order to excel in their preferred format.

United have a win under their belt and could climb off the bottom of the ladder if they beat Atherton, who have named a much stronger squad than the team that faced Norths last round.

Tully will have what has proven the nigh-on-impossible task of dismissing Jake Roach at some stage of their match against Mulgrave. The representative all-rounder already has a hat-trick with the ball and has only been dismissed once in compiling 318 runs at all levels and forms of the game since the season began.

But Tully have their own inform player in Brenton Edwards, who will be looking to be the rock in his side to help avoid a fourth straight defeat for the club to start the 2016-17 season.