A suspension and the under-18s national final have led to three changes in the North Queensland Toyota Cowboys’ NYC team for the round 10 clash against Sydney Roosters at 1300SMILES Stadium on Saturday night.
The Cowboys have lost captain Jack Kelleher for two matches after he lodged an early guilty plea on a grade two dangerous throw charge from last Friday night’s loss to Brisbane.
Corey Jensen will captain North Queensland under-20s for the first time with Bill Cullen promoted to Kelleher’s starting back-row position.
Cooper Bambling and Coen Hess are also out of the Cowboys lineup and instead will play for the Townsville Stingers against the Roosters in the under-18 national final, also at 1300SMILES Stadium, on Saturday afternoon.
Dan Clarke will start at halfback in place of Bambling and Kieran Quabba comes on to the bench after recovering from a knee injury.
Former Yeppoon Seagulls junior Yamba Bowie, who is at home in the halves or at fullback, will make his NYC debut off the bench, while Michael Barclay and Hayden Crowley have been added to a five-man reserves’ list.
North Queensland Toyota Cowboys v Sydney Roosters NYC
5.15pm, Saturday 17 May, 1300SMILES Stadium
1 Alex Grant
2 Rainer Power
3 Lenny Magey
4 Samsen O’Neill
5 Scott Schulte
6 Delayne Ashby
7 Dan Clarke
8 Jack Brock
9 Josh Chudleigh
10 David Munro
11 Bill Cullen
12 Corey Jensen (c)
13 Andrew Niemoeller
Interchange:
14 Yamba Bowie
15 Kieran Quabba
16 Viliame Kikau
17 Michael Barclay
18 Hayden Crowley
Coach: Todd Wilson.
