2013 Northern Pride RLFC season

2013 was the sixth competitive season for the Cairns based Skill360 Northern Pride Rugby League Football Club. They were one of 12 clubs that played in the eighteenth 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 24 weeks between March and August.

New coach Jason Demetriou was appointed on a two-year deal, replacing last year's coach, David Maiden (2010-2012), who was now QRL's Cairns-based Region Co-ordinator. Demetriou had played for Newtown Jets in the Metropolitan Cup, before moving to England where he played, , and  for Lancashire Lynx, Rochdale Hornets, Widnes Vikings, and Keighley Cougars, was captain for Wakefield Trinity Wildcats, and an international, having represented Canada in the 2000 Rugby League Emerging Nations World Championship, and Greece in 2007. He was coach for the Keighley Cougars (2011-2012), before moving home to Australia to take up the job with the Pride. In his first season in Cairns he was awarded the 'Men of League' Coach of the Year.

The Pride moved their administration from Jones Park, Mann Street, to 'Northern Pride HQ', Moore House at Barlow Park, and the team spent more time training at West Barlow Park.

The Pride played three pre-season trial matches. The first was the opening match to the North Queensland Cowboys v St George Illawarra Dragons trial match, which attracted a crowd of over 12,000. The game against the winners of the 2012 Digicel Cup, East New Britain Province side Agmark Rabaul Gurias, attracted a crowd of several thousand enthusiastic PNG ex-pats. The third trial saw a full-strength Pride squad with six Cowboys beat local rivals Mackay Cutters 40-12. Two weeks later in Round 1 the Pride beat the Cutters 44-12.

The Round 4 away game against Tweed Heads Seagulls was relocated to Billy Slater Oval, Callendar Park, Innisfail with funding provided by Cassowary Coast Regional Council. Country Week (Round 20), was played at Jilara Oval, Yarrabah, effectively giving the Pride two extra home games this season.

Except for Round 2 and Round 9, the Pride were on the top of the ladder every week, finishing in first place at the end of the regular season with 17 wins to claim their first Minor Premiership. Despite their winning form this season, the Pride lost both the Major Semi-Final (to Easts Tigers) and the Preliminary Final (to Mackay Cutters), missing out on a Grand Final appearance. The Cutters went on to defeat the Tigers in the Grand Final.

At the end of the season Captain Ty Williams retired.
 * Northern Pride 2013 ISC video highlights (10 Videos).

2013 Season - Skill360 Northern Pride

 * Competition: Intrust Super Cup
 * Sponsor: Skill360

Coaches/Trainers

 * Coach: Jason Demetriou
 * Assistant coach: Ben Rauter
 * Assistant coach: Joe O'Callaghan
 * Mal Meninga Cup U-18s coach: Cameron 'Spilla' Miller
 * Cyril Connell Cup U-16s coach: Paul Callaghan
 * Strength and conditioning coach: Patrick Ranasinghe
 * Trainer: Deb Gallop
 * Physiotherapist: Tim Laycock

Captains

 * Ty Williams
 * Brett Anderson (Rounds 9, 15 & 24)
 * Jason Roos (Round 16)

Managers
(Shep resigned in April 2013, and was replaced the following month by Northern Pride business development manager, Brock Schaefer).
 * Operations manager: Sheron McDougall
 * Team manager: Rob White
 * Club captain:
 * Business development manager: Brock Schaefer
 * 'Take Pride' Program Manager: Chey Bird
 * Accounts Manager: Lauren Dowling
 * Chief executive: Chris Sheppard then Brock Schaefer.
 * Chairman: Bob Fowler
 * Board of Directors: Craig Meiklejohn, Bob Fowler, Anthony Mirotsos, Bill Phillips, David Smith.

2013 Squad
The Pride used 32 players this season. Fourteen players from last year signed with the club again, and six of the Cowboys allocation players from last year were assigned to the Pride again this year. Twelve new players made their debut this season; eight were new signings (Aiden Smith, Jordan Biondi-Odo, Mervyn Walker, Nick Dorante, Sam Obst, Semi Tadulala, Steve Snitch and Tom Hancock), and four were new Cowboys allocation players (Felise Kaufusi*, Kyle Feldt*, Ray Thompson* and Scott Moore*). Although Ethan Lowe was signed by the Cowboys, he was allocated to the Pride and made 20 appearances in QCup this season.

Ty Williams (c).

Aidan Smith.

Alex Starmer.

Ben Laity.

Ben Spina.

Brent Oosen.

Brett Anderson.

Brian Murgha

Davin Crampton.

Hezron Murgha.

Jamie Frizzo.

Jason Roos.

Jordan Biondi-Odo.

Jordan Tighe

Justin Castellaro 🇮🇹.

Maddie Oosen.

Mervyn Walker

Nick Dorante.

Noel Underwood.

Rickki Sutherland.

Ryan Ghietti 🇮🇹.

Sam Obst.

Semi Tadulala

Shaun Nona.

Steve Snitch 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿.

Tom Hancock.

Dylan Taylor

Zac Parter

Pride U-18 Squad

Bradley Stephen

Josateki Murray

Pete Tognolini

Blake Leary*

Ethan Lowe*

Felise Kaufusi*

Joel Riethmuller* 🇮🇹

Kyle Feldt*

Ray Thompson*

Ricky Thorby*

Robert Lui*

Scott Bolton*

Scott Moore*

Wayne Ulugia*

Allocated but did not play for the Pride in 2013:

Matthew Bowen

Ashley Graham

Dallas Johnson

Tariq Sims

James Tamou

2013 season launch

 * Pre-Season Training: 5 November 2012.
 * Pre Season Boot Camp: Lake Tinaroo, Atherton Tablelands - Friday 18-Sunday 20 January 2013.
 * DonateLife Week fund-raiser: Touch football match against Lotus Glen prison inmates, 27 February 2013.
 * Season Launch: Thursday, 14 March 2013. 7.00pm at Mount Sheridan Plaza.

2013 player awards

 * Sea Swift Most improved player: Shaun Nona
 * Sea Swift Season Members Player of the Year: Hezron Murgha
 * Sea Swift Best Back: Sam Obst
 * Sea Swift Best Forward: Ethan Lowe*
 * Sea Swift Players' Player: Hezron Murgha
 * Skill360 Australia Northern Pride Player of the Year: Davin Crampton.
 * John O'Brien Club Person of the Year: Cameron Penny
 * XXXX People's Choice Award: Hezron Murgha
 * Men of League Coach of the Year: Jason Demetriou
 * Intrust Super Cup Leading Try Scorer: Davin Crampton.

2013 player records

 * Most Games: Ben Spina (24).
 * Most Tries: Davin Crampton (19).
 * Most Points: Shaun Nona (88).

2013 representative players

 * 🇮🇹 Ryan Ghietti played for Italy Azzurri in the 2013 Rugby League World Cup

2013 Queensland Residents team

 * Blake Leary
 * Hezron Murgha

Northern Pride (regular season 2013)

 * Win = 17 (9 of 11 home games, 8 of 11 away games)
 * Loss = 5 (2 of 11 home games, 3 of 11 away games)

Channel Nine
In August 2012 as part of the historic $1 billion five-year broadcasting agreement with Nine and Fox Sports, the Australian Rugby League Commission confirmed that Intrust Super Cup matches would continue to be televised by Channel 9 until 2018. One match a week will be shown live across Queensland at 2.00pm (AEST) on Sunday afternoons on Channel 9, WIN Television (RTQ), in remote areas on Imparja Television and in Papua New Guinea on Kundu 2 TV. The 2013 commentary team was Peter Psaltis, Paul Green, Matthew Thompson, Scott Sattler and Adrian Vowles.

In 2013 the Pride appeared in eight televised games:
 * Round 2: Northern Pride beat Burleigh Bears 24-22 at Pizzey Park, Miami, Gold Coast.
 * Round 12: Northern Pride beat Easts Tigers 24-8 at Langlands Park, Stones Corner, Brisbane.
 * Round 15: Northern Pride beat Redcliffe Dolphins 36-16 at Dolphin Oval, Redcliffe.
 * Round 17: Northern Pride lost to Mackay Cutters 26-16 (played at 12:30pm, and telecast delayed to 2.00pm) from Virgin Australia Stadium, Mackay.
 * Round 18: Northern Pride beat Norths Devils 38-6 at Bishop Park, Nundah.
 * 6: Northern Pride beat Burleigh Bears 44-12 at Barlow Park, Cairns.
 * Major Semi-Final: Northern Pride lost to Easts Tigers 16-29 at Barlow Park, Cairns.
 * Preliminary Final: Northern Pride lost to Mackay Cutters 6-20 at Langlands Park, Stones Corner, Brisbane.

Live Streaming
In 2013, all matches (including pre-season trials but excluding matches broadcast live by Channel Nine) were streamed live through the Pride website, with access granted exclusively to Pride members. Video production was by Studio Productions and the commentary team was WIN TV's Adam Jackson and Pride U-18s coach, Cameron 'Spilla' Miller.