Northern Pride crowned minor premiers with victory over Falcons
Northern Pride have continued their dominant form, securing the minor premiership for the first time in 10 years with a comeback 38-18 victory over Sunshine Coast Falcons at Barlow Park on Saturday.
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Northern Pride have continued their dominant form, securing the minor premiership for the first time in 10 years with a comeback 38-18 victory over Sunshine Coast Falcons at Barlow Park on Saturday.
Falcons, third on the table, came out firing to go into the main break with a 12-4 lead.
However coach Eric Smith and the Pride, not for the first time this season, kept their poise and bravery, annihilating theFalcons with six tries in the second half.
Both Pride halves, Jake Clifford (two tries) and Thomas Duffy, were fantastic in a strong team performance that had six different try scorers.
Smith said his side’s forward pack held its own against strong opposition while applauding his team’s overall performance.
“In that first 40 minutes, I thought even though we were behind at halftime, I thought we’d defended pretty well,” Smith said.
“One try and they had one intercept where they went the length of the field.
“But because we had a lot of errors in the first half, I thought the amount of defence we had to do against a team as good as the Falcons, I thought our defence held up really nicely.”
Tom Chester, Evan Child, Robert Derby, Jensen Taumoepeau and Dantoray Lui all made their mark on the scoreboard.
Kyle Schneider had a team-high 35 tackles, with the side wrapping up the minor premiership with two rounds remaining.
Smith said it was a reward for effort for not just the players, but the entire club.
“It’s a great reward for everyone in the club,” he said.
“The minor premiership is not the prize that we’re after, but it’s great recognition for the effort by the playing group based here and in Townsville.
“Everyone involved in the club has been working extremely hard, we’ve used 36 players this year.
“There were a lot of new ideas I wanted to implement in the pre-season and I appreciate the players and the club buying into what I wanted to change.
“But we’ll move on pretty quickly on to some bigger silverware next month.”
The 2014 Northern Pride premiership presented the squad with commemorative jerseys to wear for the clash on Saturday afternoon.
“We wanted to make sure that we put in a performance in that jersey that would make those players and the supporters proud,” he said.
“But as much as we acknowledged the past player performance, we wanted to do it for ourselves and create our own story and our own history. Something we can look back on and be proud of.”
Prop and club favourite Terence Casey-Douglas celebrated his 50th match.
After battling serious injuries and setbacks in the past few years, Casey-Douglas was able to cap the fairytale victory with conversion late in the match at Barlow Park.
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