The North Queensland Cowboys have resembled a disjointed circus act this year but Northern Pride forward Luke Harlen could provide a crowd-pleasing trick for the club on Friday.
"It’s like he’s fired out of a cannon every time he runs," Pride coach Andrew Dunemann said of the powerful forward.
The Cowboys yesterday named Harlen on a six-man interchange bench for the NRL clash against Brisbane just 29 days after he narrowly missed making his debut with Wests Tigers.
Dunemann said Harlen would line up for the Cowboys, and backed him to provide much-needed variety in the forwards.
"It’s not just his go-forward because they’ve got a lot of those type of players," he said.
"He can offload, he can carry, the one area he can improve on is his fitness. He’ll give them some good punch and he is a completely different player to what they have got down there."
Harlen has embarked on a rugby league odyssey in recent years that has taken him from Townsville, to Sydney and back north to Cairns to play for the Pride.
Dunemann hoped Harlen would get a decent run for the Cowboys after fellow Pride forward Greg Byrnes struggled for minutes in his time before returning to the Queensland Cup.
Former Origin player Ty Williams has also been called up to the Cowboys after finding form for the Pride.
"He’s come in with a great attitude and put everything into his performances here so he deserves to be back in the side," Dunemann said.
Matthew Barlett has also been named on the Cowboys bench, but may return to the Pride to play Central Comets in Rockhampton on Saturday night.
Noel Underwood has been named in Pride’s starting side.
"If Barto doesn’t come back he will play in the back row and that’s reward for his last three weeks."
Northern Pride: 1. Josh Vaughan, 2. Drew Campbell, 3. Hezron Murgha, 4. Jamie Frizzo, 5. Gordon Rattler, 6. Jackson Nicolau, 7. Chris Sheppard, 8. Ben Laity, 9. Jason Roos, 10. Greg Byrnes, 11. Noel Underwood, 12. Rodney Griffin, 13. Adam Mills. Interchange: 14. Quincey To’otoo Ulugia, 15. Ben Kerr, 16. Alex Starmer, 17. Chris Afamasaga.
Central Comets: 1. Guy Wiliams, 2. Marty Hatfield, 3. Karl Johnson, 4. Mitchell Zornig, 5. Dallas Williams, 6. Nat Bowman, 7. Marc Fickling, 8. George Tuakura, 9. Shanan Wood, 10. Brent Williams, 11. Logan Sullivan, 12. Tyron Haynes, 13. Wayne Barnett. Interchange: 14. Todd Titmus, 15. Kam Wilkinson, 16. Andrew Dale, 17. Liam Anlezarks.
