NORTHERN PRIDE IN BATTLE OF RESOLVE AGAINST MACKAY:
The Northern Pride have had an egg-ceptional few weeks but today fans will get their reward with Todd Carney set to make a long-awaited appearance at Barlow Park.
A TRIM, taut and terrific Northern Pride forward pack has upped the intensity to lead the club’s back-to-back wins but one of their leaders knows they’ll have to have their wits about them against Mackay Cutters today.
Darryn Schonig has been eating up the metres to start 2018 thanks to dropping 7kg off his formidable frame over the preseason, helping the pack emerge to meet the expectations of Intrust Super Cup.
“I think this year it has been a massive improvement from (Pride strength and conditioning coach) Scotty Callaghan coming in,” he said.
“I feel heaps fitter, I’m a lot lighter than I was last year and I think the boys would agree too. His training has been massive for everyone.
“This time last year I would have been about 117kg and on the weekend I was 110kg. I’m feeling really good at that weight and I’d like to stay there.
“I’m playing more minutes much more easily, reloading, turning and getting up off the line. It’s all a lot easier.
“I just really think all the boys have gelled together really well this year, we’re complementing each other and making everyone’s jobs a bit easier.”
Schonig expected a welldrilled Cutters side to line up at Barlow Park today under his former Cowboys under-20s coach Steve “Pup” Sheppard.
“He was a really good coach and took us all the way to the finals but we just fell short,” he said.
“A few of the boys are familiar with him.
“He’s just really smart, does really well with what he’s got and uses everyone to their strengths.”
Northern Pride coach Ty Williams said he too was wary of the tactically astute Sheppard.
“He’s one of the up-andcoming coaches and he’s very thorough in what he does so obviously we need to be on our game,” he said.
“Our focus is going to be on us and making sure we con- tinue the way that we’ve been going and making sure we don’t get complacent.”
Williams said he was excited for Todd Carney’s first home start and hoped the long weekend would attract fans from far and wide to see him play and get behind the team on their winning run.
“It’s an exciting time, but as I said to the playing group, let’s not get too carried away with it. It’s only March,” he said.
“But what we have done is put ourselves in good shape for the competition, so we just need to keep working hard and that’s what has got us to this position.”
Action at Barlow Park starts with the Mal Meninga Cup at 2pm, followed by the Colts at 4pm and main game at 6pm
WHAT WE HAVE DONE IS PUT OURSELVES IN GOOD SHAPE FOR THE COMPETITION, SO WE JUST NEED TO KEEP WORKING HARD AND THAT’S WHAT HAS GOT US TO THIS POSITION NORTHERN PRIDE COACH TY WILLIAMS