2011 was the fourth competitive season for the Cairns based Skill360 Northern Pride Rugby League Football Club. They were one of 12 clubs that played in the sixteenth season of Queensland's top rugby league competition, QRL's Intrust Super Cup, with each team playing 11 home games and 11 away games over 25 weeks between March and September.
Pride Oval and Leagues Club on Irene Street, Mooroobool were costing the club about $19,000 a month to run, an unsustainable drain on their funds. Plans to build a sports facility were delayed due to the 2008 financial crisis and at the end of 2010, the club sold the facility to Cairns Regional Council for $2.5 million. Council agreed to maintain the facility as a sports field for the community and not allow residential development at the site. The Pride were given a six-month lease, and when it expired in May 2011, the club decided not to renew and moved their training sessions back to Jones Park, Westcourt. Pride Oval was leased to CDRL Kangaroos, and became Vico Oval and Kangaroos Leagues Club once again. The Pride's continued to play home games at Barlow Park and the administration offices were at Mann Street.
Foundation captain Chris Sheppard retired after the Grand Final win last year, and was appointed as CEO, replacing John Moore. The new captain was Ty Williams, who began playing rugby league in Innisfail, played for the Cairns Cyclones in QCup, played 151 games for the NRL's North Queensland Cowboys (2002âÂÂ2010) as a , and , scoring 85 tries, the third-most in club history. He represented Queensland in State of Origin and played for the Indigenous All Stars (2008, 2010). As one of the Cowboy's player allocation, Williams had made 25 appearances for the Pride between 2008 and 2010, scoring 12 tries, before retiring from the Cowboys at the end of 2010.
The Pride gained a mascot for home games, 'Rambo the Razorback'. The Round 20 away game against Souths Logan Magpies was relocated from the Magpies home ground in Brisbane to Yusia Ginau Oval, Bamaga on Cape York in an effort to raise money for the Magpies who were struggling to attract crowds at their home venue. Both teams wore special Indigenous themed jerseys and the game attracted 2000 spectators, and was so successful that the following year, QRL introduced the 'Country Week' concept.
The Pride started the year strong, winning the first five rounds. This meant the Pride had not lost a game since Round 13 last year - 17 consecutive wins, a Queensland Cup record, previously held by the Burleigh Bears and North Queensland Young Guns with 16 consecutive wins. Their Round 5 win, 60âÂÂ10 over the SC Sea Eagles was the biggest winning score in the Pride's history and the first time they had beaten the Sunny Coast. The victory set several club records, including the biggest winning margin in the club's history, the most tries by the Pride in a single game, and the most goals in a single Pride game (Chey Bird, 10). After a draw in Round 6 and a win in Round 7, they were unbeaten after 19 matches. In Round 8 the Pride led the Cutters 12âÂÂ0 at half-time, but were beater 22âÂÂ18, their first defeat in eleven months.
The Pride finished the 2011 season in second place, and had a decisive victory in their home Preliminary Final against the Ipswich Jets, but were eliminated after losing the semi-final 26âÂÂ20 to Tweed Heads Seagulls. Although the Pride were entitled to host the semi-final, the match was scheduled to be televised, and ABC TV still did not have the ability for outside broadcast from FNQ, so the match was played at Dolphin Oval, Redcliffe. This was the second time a Pride home finals game had been moved to Brisbane to accommodate the ABC's lack of flexibility, (the other time was in 2009), and the Pride lost substantial amount of game-day revenue playing in front of a small crowd at a neutral venue.
The Pride used 34 players this season. Sixteen players from last year signed with the club again, and two of the Cowboys allocation players from last year were assigned to the Pride again this year. Fifteen new players made their debut this season; eight were new signings (Aidan Day, Davin Crampton, Lancen Joudo, Luke Saunders, Mick Wilson, Ryan Ghietti, Shaun Nona and Sheldon Powe-Hobbs), and seven were new Cowboys allocation players (Blake Leary*, Cory Paterson*, Jack Cooper*, James Segeyaro*, Kalifa Faifai Loa*, Ricky Thorby* and Will Tupou*). Ty Williams, who had played 25 games for the Pride as a Cowboys allocated player between 2008 and 2010, retired from the NRL and signed to the Pride. Joel Riethmuller* signed to the Cowboys and was allocated to the Pride.
Ty Williams (c)<br /> Aidan Day<br /> Alex Starmer<br /> Ben Fitzpatrick<br /> Ben Laity<br /> Ben Spina<br /> Brenton Bowen<br /> Brett Anderson<br /> Chey Bird<br /> Davin Crampton<br /> Hezron Murgha<br /> Jason Roos
Lancen Joudo<br /> Luke Harlen<br /> Luke Saunders<br /> Mark Cantoni<br /> Mark Dalle Cort<br /> Mick Wilson<br /> Noel Underwood<br /> Rod Jensen<br /> Ryan Ghietti<br /> Shaun Nona<br /> Sheldon Powe-Hobbs
Aisea Namoa<br /> Francis Mosby<br /> Nathan Kepa<br /> Theeran Pearson<br /> Tom Hancock
Blake Leary*<br /> Cory Paterson*<br /> James Segeyaro*<br /> Jack Cooper*<br /> Joel Riethmuller*<br /> Kalifa Faifai Loa*<br /> Michael Bani*<br /> Ricky Thorby*<br /> Scott Bolton*<br /> <br />Rounds 1-6: Pride; Rounds 7-22: Mackay Cutters:<br /> Clint Amos*<br /> Will Tupou*<br /> <br />Allocated but did not play for the Pride in 2011:<br /> Carl Webb*
Friday 30 September 2011, All Seasons Colonial Club, Manunda
<br />
The Pride played matches at 14 different venues this year, 13 in Queensland and one in NSW:
In 2011 games were televised by ABC TV and shown live across Queensland through the ABC1 channel at 2.00pm (AEST) on Saturday afternoons. The commentary team was Gerry Collins, Warren Boland and David Wright.
In 2011 the Pride appeared in four televised games: