THE Northern Pride underlined its status as a Queensland Cup powerhouse with a determined win away on Saturday night.
A gritty 18-8 win over the previously unbeaten Burleigh Bears marks the Pride out as the hunted in its debut state league season.
The Pride scored three tries to two with Jackson Nicolau, Ben Laity, and late inclusion, Cowboys regular David Faiumu crossing, while Chey Bird continued his accurate kicking with three from three.
View Northern Pride photo gallery.
Adam Fielder got a double for the Bears.
Northern now have a perfect four from four record in the expanded competition.
"We have got a decent team here and if we keep turning up and doing the little things who knows?" coach Andrew Dunemann said. "When you win four in a row teams take a look at you."
In the lead up to tackling the Bears, Dunemann was worried about what he called the soft tries the Pride allowed while conceding a miserly 46 points in the opening three wins of the season.
The coach is proving a revelation.
He challenged the Northern boys to produce defence to snuff out the Bears’ attacking big guns and got it.
Second rower Matthew Bart-lett and bench forward Scott Bolton were singled out for special praise but the coach was quick to point out the win was very much a team effort.
"It was a test of character and we passed it," Dunemann said.
"We showed we can grind out a win. There weren’t really any standout players.
"We just worked hard defensively as a team."
While the defence worked a treat, Dunemann remains concerned about the attack.
Preparing for round four he lamented a series of bombed tries in the opening weeks, even though the team scored 122 points to beat Mackay, Redcliffe and Norths.
On Saturday night the Bears led 4-0 at halftime, a scoreline Dunemann admitted could have been 20-0 was it not for the defensive effort across the park.
"We still have a lot of work to do," Dunemann said.
"It was a good win and the defence was outstanding.
"But we were ordinary with the ball, we should have been out of it at halftime."
The next assignment for Northern is away to Souths Logan.
