QUEENSLAND SUBURBAN SEEKING MAJOR MILESTONE
10 June 2009
Queensland Suburban coach Mark Forrester hopes the sacrifices made by his players will be rewarded on Saturday at Ballymore when they attempt to win consecutive Barraclough Shield titles for the first time.
Since the inception of the interstate challenge between Queensland Suburban and the powerful NSW Suburban union in 1966, Queensland has tasted success on only five occasions, with two of those victories coming under Forrester’s guidance in 2006 and 2008. Their other victories came in 1992, 1985 and 1972.
“We’ve certainly had a resurgence of the Subbies representative program and in the last four of five years we’ve taken it more seriously,” Forrester said. “The players have been more committed and the results have come. We all understand the importance of representing Queensland. The guys have made a big sacrifice with their training and giving up their weekends. They give up days off work and that just shows the sacrifice they are willing to make to be involved and how highly this game ranks for them."
Forrester said the opportunity to be the first Queensland team to win consecutive Shields has played a major role in motivating a predominantly Logan City based 22-man squad. Logan City has 12 representatives, Wynnum four, while both Redlands and the Easts Longhorns have three.
“ Queensland has never won back-to-back Shields for a reason. We understand how difficult it’s going to be and we understand the commitment it’s going to take. NSW announced their side and it is completely different from last year.”
Whilst Queensland has enjoyed unprecedented success in recent years, the current group has yet to taste victory on home soil.
“One of the things we have really wanted to do since 2006 and the reason we keep hanging around is that we want to win the Shield at home in front of our local supporters and the local rugby community,” Forrester said. “We’ve experienced winning the Shield in NSW and we’ve experienced how they come back at us the following year. e probably didn’t show NSW the respect we should have in our preparation the last time we played here and we paid for that.”
Captain and hooker Rex Harrison will again be a leading figure for a strong Suburban forward pack that returns six starters from 2008.
“Set-piece is something we are looking to take advantage of,” said Forrester, who has the luxury of the entire Logan City front-row and stalwart lock Mitch O’Hara orchestrating their scrum and lineout.
2008 Queensland Schoolboy flyer Luke Lemming has been selected in his first year out of high school and is the squad’s youngest player. The squad comes together at Ballymore on Friday to cap off their preparations.
Entry to Ballymore for Saturday’s Barraclough Shield match is free, with a curtain raiser between Wynnum and Easts colts kicking off at midday.
1 Leon MAKIRI Logan City
2 Rex HARRISON Logan City
3 Stewart CAMERON Logan City
4 Mitch O'HARA Redlands
5 David TEMPERLEY Logan City
6 Andrew BROWN Easts Longhorns
7 Brendon JONES Wynnum
8 Timothy WOODS Logan City
9 Gary BLANK Redlands
10 Brendon DALES Redlands
11 Elliott LACAZE Logan City
12 Chris BOHAN Easts Longhorns
13 Ben HIBBERD Wynnum
14 Luke LEEMING Logan City
15 Chris STAUNTON Logan City
16 Tim BURROW Logan City
17 Nathan HAZLETT Wynnum
18 Tim HINTZ Logan City
19 Tam McELHANEY Logan City
20 Nicholas YEATES Easts Longhorns
21 Jay STAUNTON Logan City
22 Patrick KAVANAGH Wynnum
Coach: Mark FORRESTER
Asst Coach: Paul DAVEY
Manager: Sean O'NEILL
Physio: Rebecca VAN DUUREN
Trainer: Matt ELLIS
Trainer: Corey McDONALD
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