PRIDE’S OLD FIRM REUNITES
Players keen to do battle in charity Legends match
CHEY Bird slotting a conversion from the sideline after Ty Williams plants a Chris Sheppard grubber in the corner is a familiar passage of play for the Northern Pride faithful.
Thanks to this weekend’s International Legends of League charity match at Barlow Park, it is on the cards again.
Bird, Williams and Sheppard will play together for the first time since Round 17 of the 2010 Intrust Super Cup season when they take on an Australian legends team with the
FNQ All Stars this Saturday (November 23).
Bird, the Pride’s all-time leading pointscorer and fullback in the club’s 2008-2017 Team of the Decade, said he was looking forward to dusting off his boots, sharing a field with some of rugby league’s greatest and catching up with old mates.
“I think Matty Bowen’s everyone’s hero,” he said.
“I’ve never taken the field with him before, with or against, so that will be exciting.
“But I’m more excited to take the field with guys in that FNQ side.
“I’ll see a few guys that I played a lot of footy with, so it’ll be great to get the band back together, so to speak.
“There’s a lot of local legends that were before my time in Cairns as well, so it’ll be a great chance to rub shoulders with those guys and just enjoy the experience.”
Bird said the FNQ All Stars’ training details were yet to be finalised.
“There’s been talk of Friday night between the hours of 2am and 5am at a couple of the local nightspots,” he laughed.
“I’m not too sure about onfield training. It’ll be a case of rock up, throw the jersey on and do your best.”
The trio will link up with old Pride teammates Brett Anderson, Joel Riethmuller, Jason Roos and Brenton Bowen, as well as former coaching staff David Maiden, Ben Rauter and David Westley, in the FNQ team.