RUGBY LEAGUE How Northern Pride represents all of FNQ
Inglis in doubt to play Manly
INTRUST SUPER CUP THEY are the four simple touches that put the Pride back into the Northern Pride.
Four minor details were included in the Intrust Super Cup team’s jersey to make it more representative of the Far North, its people, as well as tell the story of the Pride’s history.
Gone is the black which dominated last year’s strip, as the Pride returned to the primarily teal and orange they wore when they won the Intrust Super Cup title in 2014.
Pride chairman Tony Williamson said the changes were to prove the club was to show a true appreciation of not just the club’s roots, but the history of rugby league in Far North Queensland.
Every jersey carries five flags under the collar on the back of the jersey: the colours of the three rugby nurseries – Cairns, Innisfail and Eacham – linked by the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait flags.
The idea for the design came from a scene in A Few Good Men, specifically when Jack Nicholson’s character sat in a courtroom with a row of medals on his chest.
“Each medal represented something of significance, so we thought how can we represent all of the different areas we come from,” Williamson said. “I’m talking about the boys that come from within the area, inside our catchment.
“We looked at where the players came from.
“It is as much a thank you to the rest of the region, but it’s also a true demonstration of where we come from.”
Earlier this year, injured Brisbane NRLW star Tallulah Tillet said it was a detail she hadn’t seen on any other league jersey.
The phrase “we are the pride of the north” is emblazoned on the inside.
“They know where they come from, they know they’re representing the pride of the north,” Williamson said.
The Cowboys logo recognises the connection between the Pride and North Queensland’s NRL club, acknowledging the pathway from grassroots footy to the elite level, while the NRL State Championship logo is recognition for the feat the Pride achieved in 2014.
The Pride won the Intrust Super Cup title, then scored a 32-28 win against Penrith Panthers in the first NRL State Championship game on NRL Grand Final day.
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A 26-year-old rookie with just eight NRL games under his belt is on standby to fill the boots of South Sydney’s superstar captain Greg Inglis on Saturday night.
With Inglis now in a race against the clock to overcome illness as well as injury, littleknown Jacob Gagan trained in the centres for the Rabbitohs yesterday.
Inglis had been named to make his return from a shoulder complaint against Manly at Lottoland, but looms as a 50-50 prospect to play as Souths bid to remain unbeaten in 2019.
“I was meant to pick him up for training this morning and he sent me a message saying he was a bit crook,” Inglis’s centre partner and chauffeur Dane Gagai revealed.
“So he’ll have the day off and rest and come in on Friday and do the captain’s run and I guess we’ll see what happens there.”
Gagai remains hopeful his Queensland State of Origin skipper will recover in time and has full faith in Inglis’s ability to perform despite minimal preparation if he does.
“You know what you’re going to get with Greggie. He’s competitive and he just needs to rest,” he said.
“It doesn’t anything.
“One of the benefits we’ve got going here, which was a big key to our success last year, was the reserve grade boys going really pushed us at training.
“If anything happened and someone had to come and fill in, there were no doubts that that person was going to do the job.
“That’s the same situation we’re in here.”
Gagan, a former Australian schoolboys representative, is in his second season at Redfern after failing to nail down a first-grade spot in four seasons at Newcastle and Cronulla.
He’s also yet to make his top-grade debut for the Rabbitohs. AAP really disrupt