2018 Northern Pride RLFC season

2018 was the eleventh competitive season for the Cairns based Northern Pride Rugby League Football Club. They were one of 14 clubs that played in the twenty-second season of Queensland's top rugby league competition, QRL's Intrust Super Cup, with each team playing 12 home games and 11 away games over 24 weeks between March and August.

Channel 9 continued to be the television broadcast provider, but televised games moved from 2:00pm Sunday to 1:00pm on Saturday afternoon.

The Pride signed Dally M medal winner Todd Carney, a huge coup for the club. Carney hoped to join the Cowboys and play in the NRL again. After eight rounds, Carney resigned to move to Sydney to look after a family member, but promptly signed with Intrust Super Premiership side, North Sydney Bears. The Pride requested $15,000 in compensation to cover relocation costs they had paid, but Carney and the Bears refused. Carney then signed a short-term contract with Hull Kingston Rovers and returned to England to play Super League.

This was Ty Williams second season as coach. The Pride had a promising start, with three consecutive wins, but then had three straight losses, setting the tone for a turbulent season marked by inconsistent performances. The Pride won 13 games and finished fourth. They were knocked out of the finals series in the first week, with a resounding defeat to Easts Tigers 32-0. The Tigers were beaten in the Grand Final by minor-premiers Redcliffe Dolphins.

2018 Season - Northern Pride

 * Competition: Intrust Super Cup.
 * Sponsor: The Pride started the season with no major sponsor, after Sea Swift's sponsorship ended. Part way through the season 'Mount Peter Estate' signed as the Pride's major sponsor.

Coaches/Trainers

 * Coach: Ty Williams
 * Assistant coach: Ben Rauter
 * Hastings Deering Colts U-20s coach: Dave Scott
 * Mal Meninga Cup U-18s coach: Tye Ingebrigtsen
 * Strength and conditioning coach: Scott Callaghan

Captain

 * Ryan Ghietti

Managers

 * Football Operations Manager: Chey Bird
 * Administration Manager: Lauren Dowling
 * Chief executive: Greg Dowling
 * Chairman: Tony Williamson
 * Board of Directors: Colin Moore (CDRL), Ian Lydiard (CDJRL), Peter Parr (Cowboys), Gail Andrejic (finance), Stephen Tillett, Stephen Devenish.

Squad
The Pride used 32 players this season. Seventeen players from last year signed with the club again, three of the Cowboys allocation players from last year were assigned to the Pride again this year, and allocation player Ethan Lowe* returned to the Pride after last season's absence. Nine new players made their debut this season; four were new signings (Jack Murphy, James Clark, Jonico Hardwick and Todd Carney), and five were new Cowboys allocation players (Emry Pere*, Enari Tuala*, Jake Clifford*, Murray Taulagi* and Peter Hola**). Dave Murphy and Brett Anderson re-signed with the Pride.

Adrian Henley

Ben Cocciolone

Dale Ambrym

Dan Moevao

George House

Isaac Pedersen

Keelan White

Lachlan Parmenter

Lata Fakalelu

Mat Laumea

Milton Mossman

Willem Foster

Allocated but did not play for the Pride in 2018:

Connor Luhan

Wiremu Greig

2018 season launch

 * Pre-season training: 6 November 2017
 * Season launch: 3 March 2018, Cairns Colonial Club, 1:00pm to 6:00pm.

Player awards

 * QRL Coach of the Year: Ty Williams
 * QRL Pedro Gallagher Award for Rookie of the Year: Jake Clifford* (presented by the Carbine Club).

2018 Player records

 * Most Games: Ryan Ghietti (24), Brett Anderson (24), Graham Clark (24).
 * Most Tries: Jake Clifford* (10), Gideon Gela-Mosby* (10).
 * Most Points: Jake Clifford* (134 points). Clifford was the 4th highest point scorer in the QRL this season with 10 tries, 46 goals and 3 field-goals.

Sponsors

 * Shirt sponsors: Rivers Insurance Brokers, Remax Real Estate, Brothers Leagues Club.
 * Sleeve sponsores: EMU Sportswear, CSF Industries, Century Cranes.
 * Shorts sponsors: The Pier Bar, North Queensland Cowboys, Intrust Super.
 * Broadcast partner: Channel 7 Cairns

Northern Pride (regular season 2018)

 * Win = 13 (7 of 12 home games, 6 of 11 away games)
 * Loss = 9 (4 of 12 home games, 5 of 11 away games)
 * Draw = 1 (1 of 12 home games, 0 of 11 away games)