Ten Cowboys who are yet to make their NYC debut will line up for North Queensland in their opening 2014 pre-season trial against the Northern Pride at Cairns Brothers on Saturday evening.
Coach Todd Wilson has named a 20-man squad to take on the Intrust Super Cup club over four 20-minute quarters in the first of four hit-outs they will have before the round one clash with Canberra at 1300SMILES Stadium on 8 March.
Five of the newcomers have been named in the run-on 13, including first-year under-20s James Redman, who started his junior football in the Northern Territory before switching to Centrals in Townsville, and Bill Cullen from the Calliope Roosters.
Redman will partner Aaron Solari in the halves while Cullen will start in the back-row of a forward pack that contains David Munro, Corey Jensen and Andrew Niemoeller, who trained with head coach Paul Green’s NRL squad in the first half of pre-season.
Solari was with the Cowboys NYC program last season but has yet to play a competition match for the club.
The other players in Saturday’s squad yet to make their NYC debuts are outside backs Scott Schulte (who came to the Cowboys from the Sarina Crocodiles), Jonico Hardwick (Townsville Brothers), Sam Pau (Cairns Kangaroos) and Yamba Bowie (Yeppoon Seagulls); front-rowers Michael Barclay (Townsville Brothers) and Ben Mathiou (Currumbin Eagles); and Fijian forward Bill Kikau.
North Queensland have three players on their NYC injured list – Conor Carey, who is recovering from shoulder surgery; Josh Chudleigh, who had off-season wrist surgery; and Samsen O’Neill, who fractured his ankle in a training mishap.
Saturday’s match will kick off at 4pm.
COWBOYS NYC TRIAL SQUAD: 1 Alex Grant, 2 Kurt Perry, 3 Hayden Crowley, 4 Scott Schulte, 5 Jonico Hardwick, 6 Aaron Solari, 7 James Redman, 8 David Munro, 9 Chris Law, 10 Jack Brock, 11 Bill Cullen, 12 Corey Jensen, 13 Kieran Quabba, 14 Sam Pau, 15 Dan Clarke, 16 Michael Barclay, 17 Ben Mathiou, 18 Andrew Niemoeller, 19 Yamba Bowie, 20 Bill Kikau.
