Words: Michael Flynn

Northern Fury captain Jacob Crowley has no doubt his side are ready for Wednesday’s Westfield FFA Cup Qualifying tie against Townsville Warriors despite a two-week competitive lay-off.

Fury have not played in PlayStation® 4 NPL Queensland for the past fortnight after scheduled fixtures against Brisbane Strikers and Brisbane Roar Youth were rescheduled.

The enforced break interrupted a promising run of form for Fury, with the club winning their past two matches, however Crowley believes his teammates will hit the ground running in the do-or-die North Queensland Qualifying Round 5.

“We’re confident going into any game no matter who we play, but we have definitely been a lot better so far this year than we were last year,” he explained.

“It’s been frustrating because we just came off a win against Brisbane City and were up for Brisbane Strikers but that got cancelled and now we’ve had another weekend off as well. So we are losing a bit of the momentum that we had.”

“But we had a practice game on Saturday against local team Saints Eagles Souths. It was just a good hit-out to get our legs moving again and keeping our fitness up.”

Despite prevailing in that friendly match, the dynamic midfielder remains aware the intensity will prove much higher in the Westfield FFA Cup against community club Warriors, who are undefeated in the third-tier North Queensland Premier Men’s competition this season.

Crowley said, “Local teams when they play us are going to be up for a big one and they’re going to want to prove themselves against us. So it’s not going to be an easy one for us by any stretch.”

“But I think the FFA Cup in general is awesome. The local teams get to play an NPL team and that doesn’t happen very often. There is a lot of buzz and a lot of people in Townsville talking about it and it should be a really good night.”

Fury are one of several PlayStation 4 NPL Queensland clubs with previous history on the national stage after competing for two seasons in their previous incarnation as North Queensland Fury in the Hyundai A-League.

Crowley explained that should Fury qualify for the Round of 32 this year their experience against Hyundai A-League teams in last year’s Townsville Football Cup invitational tournament will also prove invaluable.

“I think we held a good account of ourselves. We played against the former champions (Brisbane Roar) and played Sydney FC, who are in the Grand Final this year.”

“You could see all the boys lift for those games and I think it gives us, if not an actual edge, then at least a bit more experience playing against teams like that.”

“We watched Palm Beach and what they did last year and we want to be in the same boat. We want to go as far as we can in the cup,” he concluded.

Westfield FFA Cup North Queensland Zone Qualifying Round 5

Northern Fury v Townsville Warriors
Brolga Park
Wednesday, May 13
Kick-off - 7:00PM