Courtesy of the Mackay Daily Mercury
SHANE Muspratt will notch up a century of state league games when he confronts the Bears at Burleigh on Saturday as part of a revamped Mackay Cutters line-up that is restless for a win.
“I had no idea,” the Burdekin-bred 30-year-old said when informed by The Daily Mercury of his feat.
“I was clueless – it’s not a bad effort I suppose.”
Muspratt made his debut for the Townsville Stingers as a teenager in 1999 but says “I can’t remember it at all.”
The following year, he laced up for Cairns as a ball-player.
“As a team we didn’t go that well but individually I played well,” he said of efforts that were rewarded with a call-up to the North Queensland Cowboys, where he played 58 NRL games.
A “couple of good years” with Cowboys feeder team Young Guns brought plenty of acclaim for Muspratt when he claimed a Queensland Cup title in 2005 and captained the side to successive grand finals in 2006 and 2007.
After a relatively unsuccessful stint as player-coach at the Cutters in 2008 and as head coach last year, Muspratt returned as a player in 2010 and is itching to help the side recover from a horror 0-3 start to the season.
“We’ll be playing with a bit of desperation and hopefully that can get us a win down there,” he said.
“The confidence is there. We just have to hold the ball to score tries.”
Coach Paul Bramley warned on Sunday there would be changes to the side following their embarrassing 30-point loss to Norths and yesterday he added two fresh faces to the line-up, which includes six Cowboys.
Impact player Luke Fatnowna will make his debut for the STM Cutters from the bench while lock Jerome Iakimo will make his first appearance for the season.
Tyson Martin will shift into the three-quarter line to shore up the defence in place of Dean Tass who Bramley said was caught out defensively and produced a couple of handling errors in last weekend’s Super Intrust Cup clash.
In a boost for local club Wests, Tass is likely to play for the Tigers in the opening round of the Mercury Cup this weekend.
Prop Zac Dalton has also been dropped and will try to return to his best with Brothers.
“We’ve only had three games but we need to start finding form,” Bramley said.
And after having “a long conversation” with QRL director of referees Eddie Ward about the officiating in last weekend’s game, Bramley is hoping Mackay can get a breakthrough against a Burleigh side boasting former Cowboys/Cutters forward Dayne Weston and Gold Coast Titans players Jordan Atkins and Clinton Toopi; the latter a former New Zealand international.
BEARS: M Paulson, J Atkins, A Fielder, C Toopi, N Ross, R Williams, B McConnell, K Burton, S Smith, D Weston, R Apanui, J Anderson, M Pow, A Brown, B O’Farrell, J Judge, K Sorensen. Coach: M Gee.
CUTTERS: D Flynn, O Geia, D Malone, T Martin, C Giumelli, G Rovelli, J Hunt, L McDonald, N Budworth, I Ah Mau, B Harris, J Bobongie (c), J Iakimo. Interchange: S Muspratt, M Achurch, L Fatnowna, D Griffiths. Coach: P Bramley.
GAME DAY
BEARS V CUTTERS
Pizzey Park, Burleigh, 6.30pm Saturday
© Mackay Cutters 2010. All rights reserved.
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