Matthew Wright will finish an amazing six days in his career by starting for the North Queensland Toyota Cowboys in the opening pre-season trial against the Brisbane Broncos at Redcliffe tonight.
This time last week, Wright wasn’t even a Cowboy and only joined the club on Tuesday when a vacancy appeared on their roster following the departure of Wayne Ulugia.
With three on-field training sessions with his new team now behind him, the ex-Shark will start at left centre after North Queensland elected to leave Kane Linnett at home and travel with Michael Morgan in their 22-man squad.
Recovered from off-season shoulder and ankle surgery, Morgan will sit on a nine-man interchange bench and should see time in the halves and centres when he gets his chance.
Lachlan Coote will wear the Cowboys’ No.1 jersey for the first time and rookie forward John Asiata will start at lock, while fellow newcomer to North Queensland, Cameron King, is on the interchange list and will share the dummy-half duties with Anthony Mitchell.
The squad also includes NYC graduates Javid Bowen and Zac Santo; front-rower Patrick Kaufusi who is still eligible for the under-20s; and five-eighth Doug Hewitt, who has signed with the Mackay Cutters in the Intrust Super Cup but has spent the pre-season with the Cowboys on a train and trial contract.
North Queensland’s four Kangaroos representatives will not play tonight after only resuming training a month ago.
Tonight’s match at Dolphin Oval kicks off at 7.15pm.
COWBOYS SQUAD: 1 Lachlan Coote, 2 Kyle Feldt, 3 Javid Bowen, 21 Matthew Wright, 5 Curtis Rona, 6 Doug Hewitt, 7 Robert Lui, 8 Scott Bolton, 9 Anthony Mitchell, 10 Ashton Sims, 11 Jason Taumalolo, 12 Tariq Sims, 13 John Asiata. Interchange: 4 Michael Morgan, 14 Zac Santo, 15 Rory Kostjasyn, 16 Ricky Thorby, 17 Glenn Hall, 18 Sam Hoare, 19 Cameron King, 20 Ethan Lowe, 22 Patrick Kaufusi.
