Warwick Cowboys mentor Col Speed has been named as the Queensland Country men’s coach for the match against City in September.
Speed who was the winning 2023 XXXX 47th Battalion representative coach with Toowoomba was named by the QRL on Monday along with former Queensland State of Origin prop John Buttigieg, who has the country women’s team.
Norths Devils 2022 Hostplus Cup premiership-winning co-coach Kevin Neighbour will be in charge of the City men, while Burleigh Bears pathways and development manager Roy Leoni, who previously coached the Bears’ BMD Premiership side and the Queensland Rubys, will coach City women.
The teams will feature the pick of players from A grade competitions across the state; Country choosing from the XXXX Foley Shield and XXXX 47th Battalion carnivals, and City from the XXXX Chair’s Challenge.
Speed and Buttigieg were present at the XXXX Foley Shield in Mackay last month to cast their eye over potential players as part of the selection panel, and will again do so at the XXXX 47th Battalion Memorial Shield in Kingaroy on July 13-14.
Speed, who currently has the Warwick Cowboys sitting on top of the TRL Men’s first grade competition, said he was looking forward to this new and exciting challenge.
“I’ve not a team to this level before – I’ve had 47th Battalion and I’ve coached a few other rep teams along the way but not to this level,” he said.
“I’m pretty emotional, pretty privileged and pretty grateful. But a lot of hard work has gone into it.
“I found out about a month ago, but I had to keep it all under wraps. I was on my way to Rockhampton to my uncle’s 80th birthday party and I got the phone call from Queensland Rugby League.”
Speed said he’d applied for the position while he was at work.
“I saw the advertisement for the position and I thought why not – I’ll give it a crack and low and behold I got the position.”
QRL Central region manager Rob Crow said it was exciting to have such high quality applicants locked in to stoke the classic rivalry.
“We had a large number of high quality applications for the positions, so there was plenty of interest there, which was great to see,“ he said.
“The men’s coach, Col Speed, I know he put his Toowoomba squad together early last year ahead of the XXXX 47th Battalion and really moulded his side before that weekend and the results showed… so he thoroughly deserved the chance at a higher level.
“John Buttigieg, a former Queensland player, has worked with our Queensland Outback women’s sides before and many other sides and it’s great to have someone of his knowledge and experience taking charge of the women.
