2015 Northern Pride RLFC season

2015 was the eighth competitive season for the Cairns based Sea Swift Northern Pride Rugby League Football Club. They were one of 14 clubs that played in the twentieth season of Queensland's top rugby league competition, QRL's Intrust Super Cup, with each team playing 11 home games and 12 away games over 25 weeks between March and August.

This season the competition expanded to 14 teams with the inclusion of the Townsville Blackhawks. The Blackhawks became the third feeder club to the North Queensland Cowboys, sharing the Cowboy's player allocation with the Pride and Mackay Cutters.

The Pride appointed a new coach after Jason Demetriou moved to the Cowboys. Demetriou had signed a two-year extension with the Pride, making him one of the highest paid coaches in the Intrust Cup, but he decided to take the role in Townsville working with David Furner and John Cartwright as assistant coaches under Paul Green. Pride assistant coach Joe O'Callaghan was promoted to head coach. O'Callaghan had been coach to numerous Academy sides, including the U-20s Central Comets (2007–2008), U-20s Tweed Heads Seagulls (2009), and U-20s Easts Tigers (2012), and had been the Pride's assistant coach for two seasons.

Former Pride player Rod Jensen was appointed Chief Executive, replacing Brock Schaefer who left to take up a senior administrative role at NRL premiers South Sydney. 'Rocket' Rod had previously played and  for the Adelaide Rams, Canberra Raiders and North Queensland Cowboys in the NRL Telstra Premiership, and for the Huddersfield Giants in the English Super League. He joined the Pride in their second season in 2009, and although he retired at the end of the year, he changed his mind and rejoined the club again halfway through the 2010 season, scoring a try in the 2010 Grand Final. Jensen played for the Pride for two more season, before moving to the CDRL Mareeba Gladiators.

The Pride defended their 2014 premiership under new coach Joe O'Callaghan. The team suffered substantial player losses as a result of their successful 2014 season with four players contracted to the NRL Telstra Premiership, two of the North Queensland Cowboys allocated players moving to the Townsville Blackhawks, and Joel Riethmuller retiring.

The club arranged some high-profile trial matches, beating newcomers Townsville Blackhawks, before travelling to Sydney to meet the 2014 NRL Telstra Premiers, South Sydney in the Return to Redfern annual match. Although the Rabbitohs rested some of their star players, the Pride held them to a 20-all draw. The following week the Rabbitohs travelled to England for the World Club Challenge where they beat Super League premiers St Helens R.F.C. 39-0. The Pride returned home to play against QCup heavyweights PNG Hunters. This trail was arranged at the last minute and was something of a consolation for the Pride, who were not scheduled to play the Hunters at home this season. Last year's home game against the Hunters attracted a record crowd, earning the club around $50,000 in gate receipts and sponsorship.

In the regular season the Pride got off to a poor start, losing the first four rounds. Round 1 was a grand final rematch against Easts Tigers, with the Tigers coming out victorious this time. Round 2 was cancelled due to Cyclone Nathan. Round 3 was against newcomers, the Blackhawks, who the Pride had beaten in a pre-season trial. The Blackhawks came to Cairns with three Cowboys players who had played for the Pride last year, and Dan Beasley, who had signed to play for the Pride, then reneged and showed up as the Blackhawks captain. The Blackhawks won 52-10, the Pride's biggest ever home loss and third biggest defeat of all time.

The Pride went on to win 14 games, climbing into the top eight by Round 9. They finished in sixth place, but were eliminated in the first week of the finals, losing 26–54 to the Ipswich Jets, who would go on to win the Grand Final against the new Townsville side.

2015 Season - Sea Swift Northern Pride

 * Competition: Intrust Super Cup
 * Sponsor: Sea Swift

Coaches/Trainers

 * Coach: Joe O'Callaghan.
 * Assistant coach: Shane O'Flanagan
 * Mal Meninga Cup U-18s coach: Dave Scott
 * Cyril Connell Cup U-16s coach:
 * Trainer: Peter Nash
 * Assistant trainer: Deb Gallop.
 * Physiotherapist: Tim Laycock
 * Head conditioner and high performance manager: Ben Fielding
 * Strength and rehab coordinator: Matthew Di Salvo
 * Assistant strength and rehab coordinator: Megan Harding

Captains

 * Co-Captains: Brett Anderson & Jason Roos.
 * Vice-Captain: Ben Jeffries
 * Sheldon Powe-Hobbs (c) (Pre-season trial)
 * Jordan Biondi-Odo (c) (Pre-season trial)
 * Senior leadership group: Brett Anderson, Jason Roos, Alex Starmer, Ryan Ghietti, Sam Obst.

Managers

 * Team manager: Alan Marsh
 * Administration Manager: Kerri Neil
 * Mascot: Barlow the Lion (Peter Spooner)
 * Chief executive: Rod Jensen
 * Senior consultant: Denis Keeffe
 * Chairman: Bob Fowler
 * Board of Directors: Tony Williamson (sponsorship), John Moore, Rob White (football), Stephen Tillett (community), Fred White (government), Anthony Mirotsos (legal), Gail Andrejic (finance).

2015 squad
The Pride used 32 players this season. Sixteen players from last year signed with the club again, and four of the Cowboys' allocation players from last season were assigned to the Pride again this year. Twelve new players made their debut this season; eleven were new signings (Bradley Stephen, Codey Kennedy, David Murphy, Dean Mcgilvray, Denzel King, Graham Clark, Keelan White, Luke George, Nathan Wales, Regan Verney and Vaipuna Tia-Kilifi), and one was a new Cowboys allocation player (Lachlan Coote*). Hezron Murgha signed to the Cowboys, but was allocated to the Pride and made 19 appearances in QCup this season.

Brett Anderson (co-captain)

Jason Roos (co-captain)

Alex Starmer

Bradley Stephen

Brent Oosen

Codey Kennedy

David Murphy

Dean McGilvray

Denzel King

Graham Clark

Jack Svendsen

Jordan Biondi-Odo

Justin Castellaro

Keelan White

Linc Port

Luke George

Nathan Wales

PJ Webb

Patrick Kaufusi

Regan Verney

Ryan Ghietti

Sam Obst

Semi Tadulala

Sheldon Powe-Hobbs

Tom Hancock

Vaipuna Tia Kilifi

Eddie Daniel

Jared Allen

Jared Verney

Menmuny Murgha

Maddie Oosen

Sam Pau

Travis Peeters

Broski Emery Hunia (Cairns Brothers)

Lachlan Parmenter (Cairns Brothers)

Peter Tognolini (Cairns Brothers)

Nathan Curcio (Atherton Roosters)

Jayden Gil

Joseph Forrester

Josh Mene

Jamie Kerwick

Ben Spina*

Cameron King*

Hezron Murgha*

Javid Bowen*

Lachlan Coote*

Scott Bolton*

Trial match:

James Tamou

Allocated but did not play for the Pride in 2015:

Antonio Winterstein

Kyle McConnell

Allocated to Pride but played for the Blackhawks:

Dan Beasley

Player losses after 2014 season
The Pride suffered substantial player losses at the end of the successful 2014 season with four players being contracted to the NRL Telstra Premiership, two of the North Queensland Cowboys allocated players moving to the Townsville Blackhawks, and Joel Riethmuller retiring. In addition, coach J.D. resigned to take up a position as assistant coach at the Cowboys.

2015 season launch

 * Cairns Induction Day: 22 November 2014
 * Pre-season training: 24 November 2014
 * Corporate launch: 20 February 2015, Barlow Park, with Cowboys coach Paul Green and players Matt Scott and Gavin Cooper.

2015 player awards

 * Sea Swift Most improved player: Tom Hancock
 * Sea Swift Members Player of the Year: Sam Obst
 * Sea Swift Best Back: Linc Port
 * Sea Swift Best Forward: Graham Clark
 * Sea Swift Players' Player: Sheldon Powe-Hobbs
 * Sea Swift Player of the Year: Jack Svendsen
 * John O'Brien Club Person of the Year: Jacqui Clarkson

2015 player records

 * Most Games: Jason Roos (24), Linc Port (24), Sam Obst (24).
 * Most Tries: Linc Port (24)
 * Most Points: Linc Port (118)
 * QRL leading try scorers (2015): Linc Port, 3rd place, (24 tries), Luke George, joint 9th place, (16 tries).

2015 Queensland Residents team

 * Ben Spina (c)
 * Patrick Kaufusi
 * Javid Bowen
 * Hezron Murgha

2015 Sponsors

 * Naming rights sponsor: Sea Swift
 * Jersey sponsor (back of jersey): Sea Swift, Brothers Leagues Club Cairns, Emu Sportswear
 * Sleeve sponsor:
 * Shorts sponsor: Brothers Leagues Club Cairns, Cairns Regional Council, Fuller Sports, Intrust Super, Cairns Hardware, EMU Sportswear.
 * Shirt manufacturer: EMU Sportswear.
 * Other sponsors: Castlemaine XXXX; Pacific Toyota; Cairns District Rugby League; Calanna Pharmacy; Tropic Wings; GATA Plastering; All Seasons Cairns Colonial Club; Cairns Plan Printing; Yalumba Winery.
 * Media partners: Sea FM; WIN Television; Cairns Post.

Northern Pride (regular season 2015)

 * Win = 14 (9 of 11 home games, 5 of 12 away games)
 * Loss = 9 (2 of 11 home games, 7 of 12 away games)

Finals Series
The Queensland Cup reverted to a six-team finals format in 2015.

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 be televised by Channel 9 until 2018. One match a week is shown live across Queensland at 2.00pm (AEST) on Sunday afternoons on Channel 9 (or GEM), on WIN Television (RTQ) in regional areas and on Imparja Television in remote areas. The match is also broadcast in Papua New Guinea on Kundu 2 TV. The 2015 commentary team was Peter Psaltis, Scott Sattler and Mathew Thompson.

In 2015 the Pride appeared in three televised games:
 * Round 1: Northern Pride lost to Easts Tigers 20-12 at Tap Out Energy Stadium, Stones Corner, Brisbane. This match was shown on the Nine Network's GEM channel because the ICC World Cup Cricket match between Australia and Sri Lanka was on Channel Nine.
 * Round 8: Northern Pride beat Souths Logan Magpies 36-18 (Played at 12.30 pm, telecast delayed to 1.30 pm) from Barlow Park, Cairns. This Round was originally scheduled as the Wynnum Manly Seagulls v Norths Devils game.
 * First Elimination Semi-final: Northern Pride lost to Ipswich Jets 54-26 at North Ipswich Reserve, Ipswich.

The Round 3 match against the Townsville Blackhawks from Barlow Park, Cairns was scheduled to be broadcast, but Channel Nine was concerned about the impacts of Cyclone Nathan and so the match between Tweed Heads Seagulls and Norths Devils was shown instead.