Northern Pride celebrates first win of 2025 Queensland Cup season vs Ipswich Jets

After a dominant 32-0 victory away from home over Ipswich Jets, coach Russ Aitken said the improvements he has noticed over the past few weeks have finally been shown on the field.

“It’s a pleasing result, because it shows what we’ve known for sometime internally, which is that we are heading in the right direction,” Aitken said.

“Our footy has been progressing nicely since the game against Norths, but up until this weekend we hadn’t really been getting the rewards.

“The boys did a really good job to just shut-out the noise and not dwell on the results. We didn’t try to change too much, we stuck solid to what we do well.

“Ipswich didn’t have their best game, but I think a lot of that came down to our pressure and forcing errors with our defence, so you can look at that both ways.”

Aitken had plenty of praise for a number of individual performances, starting at the top with captain Nick Lui-Toso.

“He led from the front, and forced a lot of Jets errors with his defence, and was great in attack as well. But even more than that it was the way he led the group and set the tone with his mentality,” he said.

“Braidon Burns and Tom Duffy were enormous with their leadership around the group and on the field.

“It’s tough to pick any standouts though because so many of the boys played some really good footy.”

The Pride now head into their round 1 fixture with Brisbane Tigers, a team in a similar position to them as far as ladder position, but Aitken said that would be the furthest thing from their mind heading into the clash.

“We’re going to expect a tough game from the Tigers. There’s a rivalry there and it’s generally a good game when these two teams face off,” he said.

“They’ll be looking to come up here and give us a game, and we’re keen to further build on that momentum we’ve already started.”

Pride appoint new chairwoman

There will be a new face at the top for Northern Pride for the remainder of 2025 and beyond, with the appointment of their new Chair of the Board Kym McPhee.

McPhee, who steps into the role following the departure of outgoing chairman Terry Medhurst, said it was “an incredible privilege to step into the role.”

“Terry has left an outstanding legacy, and I am committed to building upon that strong foundation,” she said in a statement.

In the statement, the club recognised the significant role McPhee had played in the Pride’s admittance into the BMD Premiership for the 2025 season.

“Her leadership aligns strongly with the Northern Pride’s commitment to growing women’s rugby league and the broader aspiration of seeing an NRLW team based in Cairns, supporting the North Queensland Cowboys’ vision for expansion into Far North Queensland,” the statement read.

Originally published as Northern Pride celebrates first win of 2025 Queensland Cup season vs Ipswich Jets