The Toowoomba Rugby League (TRL) has announced an initial 25-man squad for the XXXX 47th Battalion carnival.
The squad will be reduced to 19 closer to the tournament.
Toowoomba will be defending their title, which they won in Emerald in 2023.
This year's teams from the QRL Central region, including neighbours South Burnett (Burnett Brahmans) and Roma (part of Queensland Outback in 2024), will travel to Kingaroy to contest the historic representative event on July 13-14.
Toowoomba coach Col Speed said the squad "is a good mixture of experienced players and form players", adding "combinations are very important in a gruelling tournament like the 47th Battalion."
The XXXX 47th Battalion will follow carnivals held in other regions - QRL North's XXXX Foley Shield held in May and QRL South East's XXXX Chair's Challenge being held on July 5-7.
While halves are 25 minutes long, teams can play up to four matches over the weekend and at a higher level, the impact on players is immense.
TRL's squad sees form players including Pittsworth's Blake Cullen, Wattles' Cooper Tate-Roche, Goondiwindi's Jack Pattie, Valleys' Komiti Vetemotu and Brock Diment as well as Dalby's Flynn Kaiser-Capewell rewarded.
They join last year's player of the tournament in Dalby's Chris Woodbridge (pictured above) and 2023 captain Dwayne Duncan in the squad alongside other experienced players like Valleys' Dylan Chown, Josh Keolller and Denzel Burns and Dalby's Blake Mara helping with the balance of the side.
Top sides Warwick and Gatton have players rewarded with Warwick's Caleb Murphy in particular making the squad as one of the hotly contested pivot positions.
Other Cowboys players Joe Vite, Tui Oloapu, Hayden Ensbey, Jake Speed and youngster Tom Bell were also selected.
The Hawks are well represented with in form captains Luke Self and Ben Haviland, with Leonard Thomas also making the squad.
Other players rewarded for their form this season are Souths' Connor Williams and Lani Pouli as well as Brothers' Tareq Parter and Wattles' Matt Christensen
Speed was recently announced Queensland Country men's team coach through the week, and will be selected from both the XXXX 47th Battalion and QRL North's XXXX Foley Shield teams.
A 23-player women's squad has also been named: 1. Mia Davies, 2. Lucy
Davis, 3. Kim Dore, 4. Kylie Janes, 5. Tess Littleton, 6. Grace McLauchlan, 7. Sabina McLoughlin, 8. Chelsea Middleton, 9. Montana Mook-Kusu, 10. Eliza
Morcom, 11. Janet Morofa, 12. Caitlin Nolan, 13. Chontelle Orcher, 14. Chloe
Pallisier, 15. Kelsie Price, 16. Kiara Taylor, 17. Emily Walker, 18. Emily Young, 19.
Bonnie Zappa. Shadows: Libby Dunn, Reagan McMillan, Morgan Prentice, Ellie Winzar. Coach: Richard Dugdale
The XXXX 47th Battalion carnival will be streamed on Qplus.tv.
