Norths will unveil five new Devils and welcome back familiar faces when their Hostplus Cup season begins with a home clash with Mackay Cutters on Saturday night.
Devils coach Rohan Smith has named winger Tyreece Tait and interchange forward Jordan Blundell for their Cup debuts.
Experienced Cup players Brandon Finnegan, Tom Rafter and Zak Taibi will play for Norths for the first time. Finnegan will start in the halves with Connor Broadhurst, the Devils’ 2021 and 2022 premiership winner who has returned to Norths with starting edge forward Kololo Saitaua.
Premiership captain Kierran Moseley will again lead the Devils on to Premiers’ Park, named in recognition of the Premier Scaffolding Group of companies which has joined Norths as the ground naming rights partner.
It’s been on off-season of change across the Hostplus Cup.
The Devils’ team for Saturday will include only eight of the 17 players who took the field for Norths’ last game – the grand final loss to Burleigh last September.
But the squad of 17 includes nine players who have won a premiership for the Devils while the likes of Jack Ahearn and George Fai are on track to return from injury in the coming weeks.
“Every season brings change and opportunity and there are a group of new players who now have the chance to play with Norths for the first time at Cup level,” Smith said.
“And we have a group that has come back to our club after stints away. Lolo, Broady and Tyreece make eight players who have represented Norths at some level, gone away for career opportunities and returned to play Cup in the last two seasons.
“Everyone looks forward to the new season and we know that Mackay will come here and be very hard to beat. They’re a good squad and they will be a real challenge.”
The Devils’ team for Saturday does not contain any players from the Dolphins NRL squad, which will be the practice for most of 2026.
The Dolphins have allocated most of their players most likely to reach Cup level to fellow affiliates Redcliffe and CQ Capras.
However, the Devils retain the only NRL pre-season contracts with the Dolphins from the affiliate clubs. Those contracts went to Tait, premiership forward James Flack and former Newton Jets forward Jordan Leiu in the recent summer. The three players have come back from that NRL pre-season to sign Devils contracts. Leiu is recovering from injury.
Separately, the Dolphins’ investment in development has strengthened with former Jillaroo and Norths BMD Premiership coach Meg Ward taking up a fulltime development position based at the Devils.
“That allocation will be different this season but the partnership between the Devils and Dolphins has never been stronger with our pre-season arrangements and the significant investment the Dolphins make to development on Brisbane’s northside,” Norths CEO Troy Rovelli said.
“We’re now fortunate to have extra resources to assist in developing rugby league talent. That’s a major contribution to bringing along the next generation of players for Norths.”
Under the arrangement with the Dolphins, any Norths juniors who sign fulltime NRL contracts will always be allocated to the Devils.
This weekend, Devils juniors Lauloto Salei and Lachlan Lewis have been selected in the 17 while Declan Haydon, Jack Miers and Blayden Dodd have been named on an extended bench.
