Coach confident despite decade off

Troy Ngatai during a training session at Western Suburbs Leagues Club.

Mike Knott

WIDE Bay Whales coach Mark Cassidy is confident of a good performance when the side makes a long-awaited return to the Queensland Country Championships today.

The Whales will take on Central Highlands in the first leg of the Central Queensland round-robin at Western Suburbs Leagues Club, and Cassidy said they had prepared “pretty well for the match”.

“We had training in Kingaroy, Bundaberg and Hervey Bay to accommodate all players from different areas and we have certainly got a good strong starting team,” Cassidy said. “But, even with a few guys unavailable, we have got a few good back-ups with some guys on the bench we can use to our advantage as well.

“Brett Parker, from Kingaroy, who is a very good open-side flanker, will be the major one we will miss.

“But, it's Wide Bay's first game at this level for over 10 years, and although I don't really know much about them (Central Highlands), I think we will put in a pretty good performance.

“We are looking to play some good football and I can guarantee the boys will be giving it 100%.”

Cassidy named Tom Marland, whom he said formerly played for Central Highlands, as one of his trumps.

“Jason Cudby in the second row, from Fraser Coast, could be another stand-out performer for us, and in the backline, young fly-half Troy Ngatai Troy has played for the Sunshine Coast Stingrays under-19s and I'm really looking forward to seeing how he goes at this next level,'' he said.

“Shane O'Malley, an experienced front rower from Kingaroy, is captain and together with Tom Marland and Adam Ebert, they are a good leadership team.

“If the conditions are favourable, we want to try to play with the ball in the hands and make the other team do some work, and we want to be aggressive.

“Whether we have got the ball or they have it, we want to be on the front foot all the time.”

Central Highlands captain/coach and fly-half Joel Johnston said the distance between the centres in their sub-union meant they had had a “limited preparation”.

“So it is a bit of a guess – we have some decent players but we have played in the Outback Championships last year and we had two losses to Mt Isa and Western Queensland,” Johnston said.

He named blind-side break-away Tim Reeves, an Outback Barbarians representative for the last two years, as a player to watch, along with halfback Troy Mattson and inside centre Wes Grayson.

The match will kick-off at 4pm.

Wide Bay: 1 Shane O'Malley, 2 Jason Palmer, 3 Jacob Walmsley, 4 Tom Marland, 5 Jason Cudby, 6 Jimmy Courtice, 7 Trent De Vere, 8 Jesse McMillan, 9 Adam Ebert, 10 Troy Ngatai, 11 Nathan Bensein, 12 Stuart Kamp, 13 James Gunn, 14 Kyle Leaver, 15 Chris Dougan, 16 Ashley Pennington, 17 Ed Ball, 18 Dan Jacobsen, 19 Anthony Matthews, 20 Mike McDonald, 21 Cameron Meade, 22 Nick McKay, 23 Elijah Kiddie.

Central Highlands: 1 Shaun Powell, 2 Zan Branford, 3 Ben Stewart, 4 Brendan Moran, 5 Andrew Sellick, 6 Tim Reeves, 7 Chris Weeden, 8 Blake Edwards, 9 Troy Mattson, 10 Joel Johnston, 11 Liam Whitehouse, 12 Wes Grayson, 13 Manny Smith, 14 Cameron Way, 15 Brendan Wright, 16 Steve Curtis, 17, Dan Kipping, 18 Kurt Johnson, 19 Kristian Paul, 20 Steve Tarlinton, 21 Jack Speed