It was a great experience being in camp last week preparing for the annual city v country clash. The game this year was held in Gympie which incidentally were celebrating 100 years of rugby league in the town.

The game generates plenty of interest from the locals and is a good thing for the town and rugby league in general in the area. It is an added incentive to the players in the Queensland cup to strive to play at a higher level. I know the players look forward to it as the game gives them an opportunity to showcase their talents  on a bigger stage.

The Qld residents team is selected from this game and that is played as a curtain raiser for the third state of origin in Sydney next week. This gives those players an opportunity to be seen by NRL clubs as all clubs will have recruitment scouts watching that game. In recent years several players from these games have gone on to bigger and better things with names such as Matt Gillett, Trent Hodkinson and Josh Hoffman coming to mind.

Wynnum Manly were well represented in the residents trial with six players selected for City. Of those six players three have been picked to play for the Queensland next week against the NSW residents. Jack Afamasaga, Shea Moylan and Luke Dalziel-Don will play in next week’s lead up game to the state of origin. All three players had strong games in last weekend’s city country match and we wish all of those players the best against NSW

Unfortunately for us though that means we will be without them for our Sunday afternoon clash against competition leaders Souths Logan. The magpies won’t be at full strength either as they have five players that were selected for Queensland. We will still field a competitive team so it will be an opportune time to play them with both teams looking for a valuable two points.