Barnett backs boys

Guy Williams looks for a way through Mackay Cutters’ defence last Saturday.

MEGAN LEWIS

NOT surprisingly Central Queensland Comets coach Wayne Barnett has named an unchanged team for Saturday’s blockbuster on the Sunshine Coast.

The win over a good Mackay Cutters team was expected to influence Barnett but even so he was a little cagy after announcing a 17 man squad on Tuesday.

Back from suspension is rampant forward Alan Rothery and yet he was not one of the players named by Barnett.

“He’s my 18th man,” Barnett countered. “He could come into the squad.”

Given Rothery’s work rate and aggressive style of play, it seems unlikely the Comets will have him warming the interchange bench for the majority of the game.

The retaining of Guy Williams at fullback is another matter.

Williams took over the fullback role when Jade Williams was ruled out through injury.

Barnett said he was prepared to give Jade Williams another week to fully recover.

“He is available but he had an abscess on his elbow that required stitches,” he said.

Otherwise things could not be better for the Comets in the build-up to the match against the 2009 premiers.

Both sides started their campaigns with a victory while their head-to-head record of last year gives few clues to a winner of this weekend’s match.

The Comets won a thriller in their first meeting but then Coast inflicted on them the biggest hiding of the year when the sides first met at Browne Park.

In that game the Comets were led around the park by halfback Trent Hodkinson with the only consolation for the home team being they didn’t allow the Coast to top the 50-point mark.

Prior to that match Barnett had said he had a plan to stop Hodkinson, the player widely tipped to replace Matt Orford at Manly.

While the plan was provided, the Comets didn’t use it until the sides met again in the finals at Browne Park when Hodkinson was anonymous as the Comets ground out a memorable 21-14 victory.

“We will try and use that plan again,” Barnett said.

There is nothing to difficult about the plan, it is just a matter of not allowing the half back the room to play.

However, Barnett knows the game will not centre on just one player as the Sea Eagles have other strengths, especially in the forwards. Manly first grader Junior Palau is named at prop and he too will be something of a handful as he was last week when he was a part of the Coast team which beat Northern Pride at Cairns.

THE TEAMS

CQ Comets: 1: Guy Williams, 2 Junior Auru, 3: Karl Johnson, 4: Josh Bishop, 5: Dallas Williams, 6: Ben Hunt, 7: Matt Minto, 8: Gerard Parle, 9: Ian Webster, 10: Aaron Summers, 11: Chris Beasley, 12: Tyron Haynes, 13: Mick Esdale. Interchange: 14: Marc Fickling, 15: Guy Ford, 16: Darren Mapp, 17: Tim Glasby, 18: Alan Rothery. Coach: Wayne Barnett.

Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles: 1: Dennis Sandow, 2: Michael Chapman, 3: Mark Page, 4: Kyle Lodge, 5: Zane McCarthy, 6: Daly Cherry-Evans, 7: Trent Hodkinson, 8: Phil Morwood, 9: Cameron Joyce, 10: Junior Palau, 11: Jamie Buhrer, 12: Darcy Lussick, 13: Jon Muir. Interchange. 14: Rob Godfrey, 15:Ben Whiddon, 16: Simon Allen, 17: Wiremu Ratana. Coach: Brandon Costin.