Sport
11 April, 2025
Pride hopeful at home
NORTHERN Pride’s losing streak seems to have no end after they were defeated again in round 5 against the Mackay Cutters 14-12.
The team’s hopes are now pinned on a home clash tomorrow against the Wynnum Manly Eagles.
Despite the best efforts of coach Russ Aitken and the team, the Pride can’t seem to find their synergy and once against lost in a tight match against the Cutters, who currently sit 10th on the ladder.
Pride sits last with zero points. Now, all hopes are hanging on the home game tomorrow at Barlow Park against a solid Eagles that currently sit fourth and have come from a hefty victory against the Magpies 54-20.
Mr Aitken said the team was focused on tomorrow’s match and not in the past defeats.
“We’re really excited and there’s good energy from last night’s group training getting ready for this weekend,” he said.
“We’re looking forward to a home game, Wynnum are in fourth, so we’ll need to be on our game to get the result.
“Last week the performance wasn’t us but there was plenty of fight from the boys but that’s the minimum at this level so we need to be better.
“This last week against the Cutters we built a lot of pressure and had enough footy to win a few games over but we need to be better from an attacking point of view.
“We need to do better to reward all the hard work that everyone’s doing up and down the field.”
Mr Aitken said the attack was going to be their main focus when going against the Eagles.
“Our attack needs to be better,” he said.
“We need to ace our moments, we’re getting up the field well, last week we had nine minutes in the opposition’s 20 as opposed to five minutes from the Cutters and we still couldn’t find those opportunities.
“So that’s what we need to be better at, icing our moments, executing our attack and converting opportunities that we’re creating.
“It’ll be great being back, hopefully on a dry field, less disruption – we’ve had a lot of away games with a lot of uncertainty around them – which is no excuse but it’s nice to be back home.”
The match kicks off at Barlow Park tomorrow from 2.10pm. To buy tickets, visit https://bit.ly/4i1o4gR
