2011 Northern Pride RLFC season

2011 was the fourth competitive season for the Cairns based Skill360 Northern Pride Rugby League Football Club. They were one of 12 clubs that played in the sixteenth season of Queensland's top rugby league competition, QRL's Intrust Super Cup, with each team playing 11 home games and 11 away games over 25 weeks between March and September.

Pride Oval and Leagues Club on Irene Street, Mooroobool were costing the club about $19,000 a month to run, an unsustainable drain on their funds. Plans to build a multi-million dollar sports facility had been derailed by the GFC, so at the end of 2010 the club sold the facility to Cairns Regional Council for $2.5M. Council agreed to maintain the facility as a sports field for the community and not allow residential development at the site. The Pride were given a six-month lease, and when it expired in May 2011, the club decided not to renew and moved their training sesions back to Jones Park, Westcourt. Pride Oval was leased to CDRL Kangaroos, and became Vico Oval and Kangaroos Leagues Club once again. The Pride's continued to play home games at Barlow Park and the administration offices were at Mann Street.

Foundation captain Chris Sheppard retired after the Grand Final win last year, and was appointed as CEO, replacing John Moore. The new captain was Ty Williams, who began playing rugby league in Innisfail, played for the Cairns Cyclones in QCup, played 151 games for the NRL's North Queensland Cowboys (2002-2010) as a, and , scoring 85 tries, the third-most in club history. He represented Queensland in State of Origin and played for the Indigenous All Stars (2008, 2010). As one of the Cowboy's player allocation, Williams had made 25 appearances for the Pride between 2008 and 2010, scoring 12 tries, before retiring from the Cowboys at the end of 2010.

The Pride gained a mascot for home games, 'Rambo the Razorback'. The Round 20 away game against Souths Logan Magpies was relocated from the Magpies home ground in Brisbane to Yusia Ginau Oval, Bamaga on Cape York in an effort to raise money for the Magpies who were struggling to attract crowds at their home venue. Both teams wore special Indigenous themed jerseys and the game attracted 2000 spectators, and was so successful that the following year, QRL introduced the 'Country Week' concept.

The Pride started the year strong, winning the first five rounds. This meant the Pride had not lost a game since Round 13 last year - 17 consecutive wins, a Queensland Cup record, previously held by the Burleigh Bears and North Queensland Young Guns with 16 consecutive wins. Their Round 5 win, 60-10 over the SC Sea Eagles was the biggest winning score in the Pride's history and the first time they had beaten the Sunny Coast. The victory set several club records, including the biggest winning margin in the club's history, the most tries by the Pride in a single game, and the most goals in a single Pride game (Chey Bird, 10). After a draw in Round 6 and a win in Round 7, they were unbeaten after 19 matches. In Round 8 the Pride led the Cutters 12-0 at half-time, but were beater 22-18, their first defeat in eleven months.

The Pride finished the 2011 season in second place, and had a decisive victory in their home Preliminary Final against the Ipswich Jets, but were eliminated after losing the semi-final 26–20 to Tweed Heads Seagulls. Although the Pride were entitled to host the semi-final, the match was scheduled to be televised, and ABC TV still did not have the ability for outside broadcast from FNQ, so the match was played at Dolphin Oval, Redcliffe. This was the second time a Pride home finals game had been moved to Brisbane to accommodate the ABC's lack of flexibility, (the other time was in 2009), and the Pride lost substantial amount of game-day revenue playing in front of a small crowd at a neutral venue.

2011 Season – Skill360 Northern Pride

 * Competition: Intrust Super Cup
 * Sponsor: Skill360

Coaches/Trainers

 * Coach: David Maiden.
 * Assistant coach: David Westley
 * Mal Meninga Cup U-18s coach: Leon Hallie
 * Cyril Connell Cup U-16s coach: Cameron 'Spilla' Miller
 * Strength and conditioning coach: Scott Callaghan

Captains

 * Ty Williams
 * Ben Laity (Pre-season Trial)
 * Chey Bird (Pre-season Trial, Rounds 10-17 & 20)

Managers

 * Team manager: Rob White
 * Office Manager: Sheron McDougall
 * Club captain: Ben Laity
 * Business development manager: Brock Schaefer
 * Chief executive: Chris Sheppard
 * Chairman: Bob Fowler
 * Board of Directors: Nigel Tillett, Craig Meiklejohn, Anthony Mirotsos, Bob Fowler.

2011 squad
The Pride used 34 players this season. Sixteen players from last year signed with the club again, and two of the Cowboys allocation players from last year were assigned to the Pride again this year. Fifteen new players made their debut this season; eight were new signings (Aidan Day, Davin Crampton, Lancen Joudo, Luke Saunders, Mick Wilson, Ryan Ghietti, Shaun Nona and Sheldon Powe-Hobbs), and seven were new Cowboys allocation players (Blake Leary*, Cory Paterson*, Jack Cooper*, James Segeyaro*, Kalifa Faifai Loa*, Ricky Thorby* and Will Tupou*). Ty Williams, who had played 25 games for the Pride as a Cowboys allocated player between 2008 and 2010, retired from the NRL and signed to the Pride. Joel Riethmuller* signed to the Cowboys and was allocated to the Pride.

Ty Williams (c)

Aidan Day

Alex Starmer

Ben Fitzpatrick

Ben Laity

Ben Spina

Brenton Bowen

Brett Anderson

Chey Bird

Davin Crampton

Hezron Murgha

Jason Roos

Lancen Joudo

Luke Harlen

Luke Saunders

Mark Cantoni

Mark Dalle Cort

Mick Wilson

Noel Underwood

Rod Jensen

Ryan Ghietti

Shaun Nona

Sheldon Powe-Hobbs

Aisea Namoa

Francis Mosby

Nathan Kepa

Theeran Pearson

Tom Hancock

Blake Leary*

Cory Paterson*

James Segeyaro*

Jack Cooper*

Joel Riethmuller*

Kalifa Faifai Loa*

Michael Bani*

Ricky Thorby*

Scott Bolton*

Rounds 1-6: Pride; Rounds 7-22: Mackay Cutters:

Clint Amos*

Will Tupou*

Allocated but did not play for the Pride in 2011:

Carl Webb*

2011 season launch

 * Pre-Season Training: 23 November 2010.
 * Pre-Season Boot Camp: Djarragun Farm in the Goldsborough Valley, 18–19 December 2010. 110 players and coaching staff from all three squads (First Grade, Under-18 and Under-16) attended the boot camp.
 * Corporate launch: 14 March 14, 2011, Cairns Colonial Club, Manoora.
 * Season launch: 12 March 2011, Esplanade Lagoon, Cairns.

2011 player awards

 * Northern Pride Player of the Year: Jason Roos
 * Most improved player: Ben Spina
 * Best back player: Brett Anderson
 * Best forward player: Luke Harlen
 * Club Person of the Year: Chey Bird
 * Australia Day Awards, 25 January 2011: Senior Sports Person Award: Chris Sheppard.

2011 player records

 * (Records to end of the 2011 season)
 * Most Games – Ben Laity 96, Mark Cantoni 89, Chey Bird 85, Jason Roos 81, Joel Riethmuller* 67.
 * Most Points – Chey Bird 542, Tom Humble 174, Rod Jensen 136, Ryan Stig 128, Brett Anderson 116.
 * Most Tries – Rod Jensen 34, Brett Anderson 29, Mark Cantoni 25, Chey Bird 22, Tom Humble 20.
 * Brett Anderson scored 15 tries this season – the highest try scorer for the Pride and the third highest in the Intrust Super Cup this season.
 * Chey Bird scored 198 points this season – 4 tries and 91 goals. He was the second highest point scorer in the Intrust Super Cup this season.

2011 representative players

 * 🇺🇸 Mark Cantoni (2011 World Cup Qualifier), 2 appearances.

Players selected for the 2011 Queensland Residents team

 * Brett Anderson
 * Hezron Murgha.

Special playing strips

 * 2011: NAIDOC Week green jersey worn in Round 15, Friday 8 July 2010 at Barlow Park for the game against the Burleigh Bears.
 * 2011: Special NPA Region indigenous jersey designed by Mario Assan for the Round 20 game, Saturday 20 August 2011 at Yusia Ginau Oval, Bamaga against Souths Logan Magpies. The design incorporates:
 * - The five communities of the NPA Region: Injinoo, Umagico, Bamaga, New Mapoon and Seisia, the communities are represented on the five dots on the boomerang.
 * - The five tribes the Traditional Owners of the NPA Region (Anggamuthi, Atambaya, Wuthati, Yadhaykenu and Gudang). The tribes are depicted through the five rivers that stream from the bottom of the boomerang.
 * - The main centrepiece of the design the Torres Strait Headress (Dhari) traditionally known as a Dhibal, is from Saibai Island, which makes up the majority of the TSI population in the NPA which migrated to the NPA throughout the 1940s. The Dhari as a significant importance in TSI culture, the initiation of young men into warriors, celebrated through dance and ceremonies.
 * - The boomerang represents the Aboriginal peoples of the NPA, used in hunting and gathering and significant ceremonies

Northern Pride (regular season 2011)

 * Win = 15 (9 of 11 home games, 6 of 11 away games)
 * Loss = 5 (1 of 11 home games, 4 of 11 away games)
 * Draw = 2 (1 of 11 home games, 1 of 11 away games)

2011 venues
The Pride played matches at 14 different venues this year, 13 in Queensland and one in NSW:


 * Callendar Park, Innisfail.
 * Barlow Park, Cairns.
 * Rugby Park, (Ayr.
 * Browne Park, Rockhampton.
 * Langlands Park, Brisbane.
 * Pizzey Park, Gold Coast.
 * North Ipswich Reserve, Ipswich.
 * Shark Park, Mackay.
 * Piggabeen Sports Complex, Tweed Heads West.
 * BMD Kougari Oval, Brisbane.
 * Stockland Park, Kawana Waters.
 * Dolphin Oval, Redcliffe.
 * Yusia Ginau Oval, (Bamaga, Cape York.
 * Albert Bishop Park, Brisbane.
 * Dolphin Oval, Redcliffe.

2011 Televised Games
In 2011 games were televised by ABC TV and shown live across Queensland through the ABC1 channel at 2.00pm (AEST) on Saturday afternoons. The commentary team was Gerry Collins, Warren Boland and David Wright.

In 2011 the Pride appeared in four televised games:
 * Round 6: Northern Pride drew 12–12 with Ipswich Jets at North Ipswich Reserve, Ipswich.
 * Round 11: Northern Pride lost 12–26 to Tweed Heads Seagulls at Piggabeen Sports Complex, Tweed Heads.
 * Round 13: Northern Pride lost 28–30 to Wynnum-Manly Seagulls at BMD Kougari Oval, Brisbane.
 * Semi-Final: Northern Pride lost 20–26 to Tweed Heads Seagulls at Dolphin Oval, Redcliffe.