Like many rugby league fans, Pat Carrigan was impressed with the forwards selected in the Tonga squad for the Pacific Championships, but unlike the rest of us, he has to face them front on.
Going head-to-head at Suncorp Stadium this Friday night in the opening men’s match of the tournament, Carrigan said he was looking forward to being part of the Kangaroos squad who were out to “make amends” in this year’s competition after losing the Pacific Cup final to New Zealand.
“That Tonga team's hectic! The Pacific nations teams are all strong, I think it's really even to be honest, that Tonga team and the Kiwis are looking really strong,” Carrigan said.
“It's exciting for the game. It's awesome that there's a game at Suncorp, I am really excited for that.
“International football can get shadowed with the length of the season sometimes and how much emphasis is on finals, but I know that this still means a lot to people and especially the Pacific Island nations, how much it means to their culture and their families.
“It's going to be a fun series and hopefully, we can make amends for what happened last year.
“I'm also going to have some fun, learn, meet some new faces and hopefully just get a little bit better as a footy player.”
Carrigan’s call-up to the Kangaroos comes after a strong personal season which saw him claim Brisbane’s player of the year award by a runaway margin and while Brisbane's results fell short of their high expectations set following their grand final appearance in 2023 - missing the finals and ultimately seeing coach Kevin Walters replaced last month by Michael Maguire - Carrigan was optimistic for next season.
“I probably played my best footy under Kevin in the last three years, I'm always going to be grateful for what he did for me and the early coaching staff,” Carrigan said.
“I think that the most important thing is the pride that he had in the Broncos jersey and instilled into us boys and I'm going to carry that forward.
“I really want to make amends and have our own legacy as a group here and hopefully bring back some silverware in the future.
“Obviously, we're going in a new direction as a club and I have had some small chats with Madge, I'm excited about what he's going to bring and everyone here is willing to work hard and, as a group, there's a certain standard that we want to achieve and that's competing for premierships every year.
“It is a fresh start, but I think if we work hard, we can do what we want with next year. As a group, we want to be competing for premierships and we've got some small stepping stones to go to get back to where we were two years ago.
“But, there's a lot of luck involved to it and I know with the right coaching and the right motivation for the boys, us taking accountability, then I think we can go a long way.”
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