Flying under the radar
Queensland’s junior bowlers will head into next week’s National championships as underdogs, despite being last year’s overall winners.
Queensland coach Bill Cornehls said the lack of focus on his team could be a positive in the tournament.
“We’re happy for the attention to be on the other states. We’ve managed to fly under the radar even though we are the reigning title holders and I think it could give us a bit of an advantage,” he said.
Every game is do-or-die for the Maroons this year, with the withdrawal of the Northern Territory leaving them in a section with only Victoria and South Australia.
A Victorian reserve side will play against each team in their bye rounds but no competition points will be on offer.
Queensland will open their championship campaign against the reserves and Cornehls said this start will be a good opportunity for his side to settle into the difficult conditions.
“We’re going to be playing in conditions that are out of our comfort zone…so to have to play against Victoria or South Australia for competition points straight up would be incredibly hard,” he said.
Cornehls said his team has every chance of equalling last year's performance, when they came away with medals in almost every division.
The boys pairs are Queensland’s best chance at gold but Cornehls said his team’s strength is in its consistency.
“Sean Ingham in the boys pairs will definitely be wanting another gold medal…Our focus is on the team, though. Other states have stand out individuals and we do too but we’re more concerned about our team as a whole,” he said.
Cornehls and the team will head down to Victoria tomorrow ahead of the star of competition on Monday.