Martin makes NRL debut
WORKAHOLIC Mackay Cutters second-rower Tyson Martin has been rewarded with his debut appearance for the North Queensland Cowboys tonight, as the NRL club's two Intrust Super Cup teams get set to battle.
Martin has been included on the bench for the Cowboys against the Eels at Dairy Farmers Stadium, Luke Young stepping up to take his place for the clash with Northern Pride at Virgin Australia Stadium.
"We'll miss Tyson, he was our best player last week (in the opening round loss to Redcliffe)," coach Anthony Seibold said yesterday.
"We're going to miss his quality but the others will step up."
Martin, 22, of Proserpine, was contracted to the Skills Training Mackay Cutters in 2010 and also played with them last season.
Seibold called for the Cutters to "roll their sleeves up" against a quality Northern Pride side which includes a lot of NRL experience in Kalifa Faifai Loa, Scott Bolton, Ty Williams and Rod Jensen.
It's the first home game of the season for the Mackay club, and the Cutters' under-16 and under-18 sides will get their first taste of the stadium in curtain-raisers against Pride teams.
"The Pride is stacked with quality and it's a challenge to us," Seibold said.
"The boys are keen to get out there and challenge themselves against them."
Seibold said the support of a parochial home crowd would lift the Cutters.
"Redcliffe had a couple of thousand people last week braying for our blood," he said.
"We'd love to get the support that Redclife got last week."
