Match preview: Cowboys v Broncos trial!

THE SHERIFF'S MATCH PREVIEW: Cowboys v Broncos
2013 NRL Pre-Season Trial #1

TEAMS

North Queensland Toyota Cowboys: 1 Clint Greenshields 2 Kalifa Faifai Loa 3 Curtis Rona 4 Kyle Feldt 5 Wayne Ulugia 6 Michael Morgan 7 Robert Lui 8 Ricky Thorby 9 Scott Moore 10 Scott Bolton 11 Tariq Sims 12 Blake Leary 13 Joel Riethmuller. Interchange: 14 Ethan Lowe 15 Matt Minto 16 Sam Hoare 17 Tyson Martin 18 BJ Munns 19 Felise Kaufusi 20 Ben Spina 21 Chris Grevsmuhl.

Brisbane Broncos: 1 Joe Bond 2 Delroy Berryman 3 Lachlan Maranta 4 Jordan Kahu 5 Denan Kemp 6 Luke Capewell 7 Ben Hunt (c) 8 Scott Anderson 9 Kurt Baptiste 10 Dunamis Lui 11 Caleb Timu 12 Nick Slyney 13 Brendon Gibb. Interchange: 14 Jake Granville 15 Cameron Cullen 16 Jarrod Wallace 17 Mitchell Dodds 18 Francis Molo 19 Chris McLean 20 Joseph Forrester 21 Peter Gubb.

MATCH DETAILS
Date: 5pm, Saturday 9 February 2013
Venue: Alec Inch Oval, Mt Isa
Match updates: Follow @nthqldcowboys on Twitter

THE SHERIFF’S SYNOPSIS

After a five-month wait, and an arduous 10 weeks of pre-season training, our Cowboys finally return to the playing field this weekend for an historic pre-season match in Mt Isa.

This is the first time the Cowboys’ NRL squad has played a game in the mining city and the region’s league-loving residents have responded, buying all of the 4,000 available tickets more than a fortnight in advance.

It’s going to be a huge thrill for our Isa-based members, many of whom make the 20-hour round trip for Cowboys home games in Townsville, to see their team play in their home town and the squad has vowed to do all they can to make their trip an enjoyable one.

This pre-season match is about more than just football.

There are school and hospitals visits followed by open training at 4pm on Friday, and then appearances by some of the non-playing squad members at Queensland Country Credit Union and Bell and Moir Toyota on Saturday morning.

The boys will be out and about meeting as many people as possible as part of Cowboys on Tour and the NRL’s Community Carnival.

When the focus goes to football on Saturday afternoon, the Mt Isa fans will get the first chance to see three of the club’s recruits – Scott Moore, Curtis Rona and Clint Greenshields – in the starting lineup and NYC graduates Kyle Feldt and Felise Kaufusi off the bench.

Then there’s Tariq Sims, Robert Lui and Tyson Martin back from lengthy absences with Martin, Matt Minto and Ben Spina trying to earn NRL contracts for this year.

Forwards Scott Bolton, Ricky Thorby, Blake Leary and Joel Riethmuller will be determined to show why they should be included in the round one squad against Canterbury, while young guns Sam Hoare, Chris Grevsmuhl, Wayne Ulugia, Curtis Rona and Ethan Lowe will be eager to prove to Neil Henry and his coaching staff that they're capable of stepping up to first grade when needed.

Performances count more than the result in this type of match, even though it is against our mates at the Broncos.

But it would still be nice to make it four in a row against Brisbane.