DYNAMIC DUO CUT ABOVE
Two players had superb seasons but there were plenty of others who showed how tough the competition is
AS players return to their clubs for preseason the Cairns Post is looking back to predict the men who might have the biggest impact on the FNQ Rugby League A-grade competition in 2023.
The challenge of splitting the top two was near-impossible, with the heart-stopping grand final ultimately proving the tie-breaker, which is why you’ll find Brothers forward Nick Harrold, the Player of the Grand Final, has toppled FNQRL Gold Medal winner Eddie Daniel for top spot on this list.
Make no mistake: it could easily have been a tie – and possibly should have been – but we’ve opted against sharing any spot in the list, which you can view in full on our website by scanning the QR code.
10. Davin Crampton (Mossman-Port Douglas)
The veteran produced one of his best seasons for the minor premiership winning Mossman-Port Douglas Sharks.
Davin Crampton won a premiership with the Northern Pride and played his way into an NRL system as a younger bloke, but watching him in 2022, there’s no doubt he’s still got what it takes to be among the best in the region.
Just try stopping the big fella getting through a veritable mountain of work.
A vital cog in Mossman’s monster forward park, Crampton brought the controlled aggression to the pack the Sharks truly needed in their march to the grand final.
It didn’t pan out on that day, but the man who finished ninth in the Gold Medal hunt was among the most consistent player in his side throughout the season.
The experienced forward will take the next step in his rugby league journey in 2023 as a playing-coach of the Sharks.
9. Rod Griffin (Atherton)
The warhorse returned to his junior club as a farewell to rugby league, but based on his form the former PNG international still has plenty in the tank.
Rod Griffin emptied that tank every single week for the Roosters, leading his team from the front and putting in the work to finish his career on a high.
His go-forward, veteran knowledge and the leadership he brought made an enormous difference to what was an Atherton team of mixed youth and experience.
His willingness to take hit-up after hit-up and more often than not bend the defensive line is a very big reason why Atherton early in the season was atop the table then made the post-season.
And, watching the Roosters week to week, it would’ve been easy to have him in man of the match calculations every time because he is just that good.
It was Griffin’s first year out of the Queensland Cup, in which he played four grand finals (winning two – the Pride in 2010 and Ipswich in 2015), but he showed he still had it.
8.
Aaron Jolley (Innisfail) have a premiership to his name at the club. Jolley has been a key piece in Leon Hallie’s roster in the Far North, first at Tully and then more recently and regularly at Innisfail, and it’s little wonder why when you consider his on-field performance.
In 2022, he was most used in the halves, but an injury crisis forced the Leprechauns into a reshuffle for their qualifying final against Brothers, which meant he suited up at fullback for the first time that season – yet still, he performed.
It has been evident over the years how he puts the team on his back, whether it’s with the No. 1, 6, 7, or 9 on his back, and more often than not delivers for his team.
Jolley was the highest-placed Leprechaun in the Gold Medal race, just five votes off winner Eddie Daniel.
He’s had a fair few grand final appearances over the past few years but now all he needs is that elusive premiership to cap his time with Innisfail.
7. James Clark (Atherton)
If you need a reminder as to how good James Clark is, look no further than this.
The Roosters lock was just one good game – one – away from claiming the FNQRL Gold Medal, and that was despite missing several fixtures through injury.
Another of Atherton’s absolute workhorses, Clark got through a mountain of work for his team throughout this season.
Blessed with a brilliant roster dripping with talent, the Roosters ran the table for the first half of the season before injury took its toll – and Clark was a major part of that success.
And while others might have backed off, Clark stepped up, delivering the form for which he is known with his hard running and tough tackling. He was among their best again in their heartbreaking finals loss, and should be the centrepiece of the forward pack.
6. Jordan Biondi-Odo (Brothers)
The Brothers playmaker wrote himself into the record books as the first coach to claim a premiership for the club a decade after leading his team to the promised land.
Under immense pressure after the straight sets exit in 2021 – a year in which Brothers romped to the minor premiership – Biondi-Odo ignored the noise and trusted in his squad as they eyed the long-term goal of winning the grand final.
He was seemingly never flustered by talk of his team’s fortunes on a week-to-week basis as they fought with the Sharks and Leprechauns for top spot.
And his form on the paddock, both with ball in hand and steering the team around the park as its coach, spoke volumes.
Biondi-Odo is the highest-ranked player to not appear among the Gold Medal finalists as he led a club with a team-first mentality to the one that mattered most.
where the Gold Medal doesn’t judge the Cairns Post’s FNQRL Top 100 does, and Biondi-Odo deserves plenty of credit for picking up the pieces of a team that was thrashed in the major semi final to become premiers just a fortnight later against the same team.
And while it’s a team effort, his performance as both player and coach were a big reason behind the turnaround.
5. Matthew Gibuma (Mossman-Port Douglas)
The Sharks fullback added more strings to his impressive bow this season as he became even more of a ballplayer than the finisher he’s been known as through the years.
Gibuma is usually among the leading tryscorers in this competition, but was credited with 15 fourpointers to finish sixth in the race to the top.
It looked like he lost a tiny bit of pace – which is a staggering thought, when you consider how quick he was across the park this year – but it wasn’t a season in which it was all about scoring long range tries for Gibuma.
Gibuma played a crucial hand in plenty more than just the 15 he scored, whether it was getting his team on the front foot with a line break or kick return or throwing a key pass in the movement to either sideline. And when you consider there were four Sharks in the top 10 tryscorers, it’s scary to imagine just how many he could’ve had if he played more selfishly.
But that speaks volumes of the man, and the role he played in the season the Sharks had.
On top of that, he was equal 10th in the Gold Medal race – a huge achievement.
4. Stanley Anau (Mossman-Port Douglas)
There is no stopping Stanley Anau when he gets half an opportunity.
Anau was at his freakBut ish best in
2022, crossing for 29 tries through the Sharks’ regular season and finals campaigns to claim his third-straight top tryscoring gong – which must be close to a record.
What makes Anau even more impressive is his value across the park.
Not only is he among the great finishers on the wing, but whether he played in the halves, at centre or at fullback, Anau was just as damaging as he embraced the free-roaming role coach Joel Marama allowed.
The flyer scored plenty of tries simply by supporting his forwards, who were among the most dominant packs in this competition, but his highlight reel featured plenty of outstanding individual efforts which had to be seen to be believed.
He’s up there with former Cowboys and Maroons outside back Ty Williams as one of the best finishers to play in this competition.
3. Zane Knowles (Ivanhoes)
Ivanhoes’ everywhere man Zane Knowles evolved into one of the best and most consistent performers in the competition this season.
He played in multiple positions, mostly at hooker or in the back-row, gets through a mountain of work in attack and defence, and is a handy goalkicker to boot.
Regardless of where he took the field, Knowles could always be relied upon for tough carries, playmaking, his vision, and ability to compete until he had nothing left. Knowles barely missed a game for Ivanhoes this year, and it’s a big part of why he has been so highly rated by the Northern Pride throughout the past few years.
“He is just everywhere, I don’t know anyone who works harder than him,” said his coach Lindsay Styles. “All of the little things people don’t really see.”
He finished equal third in the Gold Medal race, and with good reason.
2. Eddie Daniel (Mossman-Port Douglas)
MOSSMAN-Port Douglas Sharks star Eddie Daniel was crowned the season’s best player after sweeping to the Gold Medal, but he comes in at No. 2 in the Cairns Post’s FNQRL Top 100.
Daniel became the first MossmanPort Douglas Sharks player to win the Gold Medal since Noel Haslam in 1998 after starting the season in lightning form.
He spent the off-season with the Northern Pride, eventually earning a contract with the Hostplus Cup club to put him on the cusp of a debut.
Daniel then captained Cairns at the Foley Shield, which he described as a great honour despite the tough weekend, and led Mossman-Port Douglas to the top of the table.
His form proved irresistible for Pride coach Ty Williams, who handed the halfback his Hostplus Cup debut in the most unique and most meaningful possible way: the club’s Country Week clash at Thursday Island.
He missed a few FNQRL games on duty with the Pride and through injury, and while he took his team to the minor premiership and the decider, the grand final loss puts him just behind the eventual No.1.
But make no mistake – the form Daniel produced in the first portion of the season and then during the final few weeks was nearly impossible to overlook, and he is a deserved Gold Medal winner.
1. Nick Harrold (Brothers)
No player showed the toughness week in, week out, which Nick Harrold did for Brothers in the 2022 FNQRL A-grade competition.
He fell short in the Gold Medal race but his ability to produce such a high quality of rugby league every single week is why the veteran forward is No. 1 in this list. He finished as a close runner-up to Daniel by just two weeks, and while the Gold Medal voting was a bit kinder across the board this year – and tougher to argue against – the fact Harrold featured as heavily in his club’s success throughout the season is why he’s the best.
Harrold isn’t in a playmaking or key position, but whether he lined up at prop, second row, or lock, you knew what you’d get from the former Queensland Cup gun every game – and that’s what he produced.
Arguably the toughest man in the competition, nobody ran harder, tackled harder, played smarter or with more purpose than Harrold.
He was a major reason why Brothers came out on top in the FNQRL decider, crushing a decade-long drought at Barlow Park, and he deservedly took out Player of the Grand Final as well as the Bob Mulley Award for Brothers’ best and fairest.
And the fact he featured throughout Brothers’ campaign from start to finish is why he is simply the best in 2022.