It’s a relief to have some players back

Hello everyone, welcome to the 15th ‘Churchie’s Comment’ for the year in your favourite rugby league newspaper — The National.
Last weekend provided the SP Hunters with a much-needed respite for most of our group. We had a number of niggling injuries that needed some time to heal.
We are also lucky to have a couple of players return from injury and get some valuable game time in the Gold Coast A-Grade competition.
Additionally, players who have had limited minutes with the Hunters got the opportunity to play.
The past two games, I have been hamstrung, selecting my 17 as we had only had 18 and 17 players respectively for those games. So to get to this week and have 22 players available for selection feels like a luxury.
With three players returning from suspension and a few more now fit to play, means we have some much-needed experience returning to our squad.
While the past two games were challenging, we were in both contests for around 50 minutes before a lack of experience or match fitness showed out in the end.
At the end of last week, we had a visit from Marcus Bai. He spoke about staying focused and being good ambassadors of the country and PNG rugby league. Bai addressed the group and gave them an insight into his journey to the playing the game at the highest level.
I love Bai’s passion for the game and for his people, he had every eye glued on him as he held court in front of the group. I think the playing group were just as moved as I was listening on.
The Hunters chose to start this week with a players-only BBQ, where they met to discuss their start to the season and the past few weeks. They all understand that they have made a huge commitment to be in Queensland, so we wanted time to reset their intentions as a group.
You like to see this type of player-led meetings, as it means they want to take ownership of their performances and standards. The strength of any team is how much the playing group hold each other accountable and what standards are acceptable.
We have started the week with more energy and communication in the group. As coach, I will be looking to build on that and keep driving the players to higher standards.
We face Redcliffe on Saturday evening, both teams are playing for the Stan Joyce Cup. Stan is from Redcliffe and also has a huge presence in PNG. It will be the first time we play for this Cup with Stan as the chairman of the Hunters.
I have never been lucky enough to have anything named in my honour but I’m sure this would be something our chairman takes with great pride. It would be great for the Hunters to capture this Cup in Stan’s first year as our chairman.
The game also marks a home coming of sorts for myself. I spent my high school years at Redcliffe. Many of my old school mates still reside there and I’ve received messages from around 15 of them saying they can’t wait to catch up after the match. I have only sporadically heard from some of them since we left school, so it will be touching to see them all back together. Being that they are Dolphins supporters, I will hopefully enjoy showing them the Cup when I catch up with them after the game.
Until next week, stay safe, play safe and let’s all respect and be kind to each other.

Cheers,
Matt