Girls display the pride of the region on the football field

The Northern Pride Harvey Norman Under 19 team are a shining example of the positive outcomes that can be achieved when a club unites around a common goal.

The team were tested by their opposition last weekend, going down in a tough game to Townsville Blackhawks in great ‘local’ derby and while the result wasn’t what the team had trained for, coach Flori King-Smith was proud of the performance and could not fault the effort, especially in defence.

However, following her her first game in charge of the side, King-Smith noted the areas she wanted to see improve for their next game and has been able to call in the support of the wider club to help better prepare her players for their next on-field challenge.

“Last night I went to Ty (Williams – Northern Pride head coach) and went to him ‘are you doing any opposing tonight?’ and he said ‘nah, but what do you need help with?’,” Smith-King said.

“I said ‘I just need the girls to get some drills in to get them out of the fear of breaking past the line’, because that’s one of the things I saw on the weekend with the girls and I really wanted to work with them on that and he said ‘I’ll come and help you, I’ll get my assistant coach to run the session and I’ll come and help you’.

“It’s good to have a vast range of experience of coaches around me who are hands-on resources right there.”

The support for the girls team from the wider club has been evident throughout the pre-season as well, with all of the teams joining together at the one venue this year for their training sessions producing "a sea of Pride training gear".

This spirit of togetherness has also helped provide development opportunities for emerging female players not only from the Cairns region, but beyond.

Some girls from Tully, Innisfail and Kuranda undertake up to two-hour drives to attend each training session, while the team also has three players from the Northern Peninsula Area and Torres Strait.

Cousins Melissa Hosea and Elizabeth Hosea come from St Pauls (Moa), which is part of the Torres Strait’s western island group and Alicia Bowie is from Bamaga; and all three players have been able to add their skills to the side thanks to a wide support network.

Despite distance presenting a barrier to participation, Melissa is one of the players with the most ‘big game’ experience, having been part of the winning Queensland Under 17 Country Girls side last year.

“Melissa Hosea and Elizabeth are from St Pauls, which is an island off the main island which is Thursday Island, so to be able to get to Thursday Island, you have to get a charter flight, one of the flights and it’s not regular, and Alicia Bowie who is from Bamaga,” King-Smith said.

“We are connected by roads, they are connected by sea, so that’s how they get around.

“Northern Pride represents all the way from the north of Cardwell, all the way to Torres Strait and we are about giving opportunities to players in this geographic space and how we deal with it is a challenge itself.”

The three players are being supported in their endeavours to play by their own families who have organised families for their daughters to stay with while they are training in Cairns, as well as by the Northern Pride, with the club’s Old Boys and sponsors including Skytrans pitching in for discounted flights.

Their participation also wouldn’t happen without the support of their schools, with King-Smith noting the importance of the players keeping up their attendance records and keeping up to date with classwork so they are not missing out on their Queensland Certificate of Education.

Preparing the girls to be fit for the Harvey Norman Under 19 competition was a challenge as well.

“Before their competition started, satellite coaches were sent training programs to do with the girls so they could do what we were doing... and when it came down to the competition, they came down the week before the competition so they could train with the girls,” King-Smith said.