Williams chases win against Smith

NORTHERN Pride coach Ty Williams will be chasing win No.2 over Sunshine Coast counterpart Eric Smith when they face off as Intrust Super Cup coaches for the first time.

The Pride will travel to Kawana to take on the high-flying Falcons, who have started the season 4-0 and are nesting at the top.

The Pride have slipped to eighth after two losses, and will enter a virtual restart of their 2019 campaign when they step onto Sunshine Coast Stadium.

The Pride are 2-2 after four games, with a points differential of zero. They’ve scored 66 points and conceded 66 points through their first four.

The last time Williams and Smith were in the same contest was in late 2016, when they were the last men standing in the Pride’s pursuit for a new coach after Joe O’Callaghan chose to leave the club.

Pride CEO Tony Williamson said virtually nothing split the pair, who had extensive backgrounds in the Cairns District Rugby League.

Williams, though, had the edge because of his FNQ and Cowboys link.

Williams is one of Innisfail’s finest exports, and played 151 NRL games for North Queensland and started three Origins in 2005.

Smith is a former premiership-winning player and coach at Cairns Brothers. He won a title as a player under Parramatta Eels coach Brad Arthur in 2005, then became captaincoach in 2007, winning titles in 2008, 2009 and 2011.

He coached Melbourne’s under-20s, and was appointed Falcons coach this season.