The Final 29 men SP Hunters was announced this week at the Oil Search National Football stadium after the omission of 6 players.
According to SP Hunters Coach Matthew Church, Ricko Jimmy, Rhadly Brawa, Sunny Lipu, Ben Kennedy, Jordan Pat and Valentine Culligan were released.
“It was a tough conversation to have with each player, one part of the job of a coach we don’t look forward to but it’s best to be honest,” he said.
He encouraged them to keep playing hard and well in their Digicel Cup.
Meanwhile, 11 new faces were added into the squad.
Coach Matthew Church said the squad was selected on the way they wanted to play this season.
“The suitability to the Hunters playing style and the introduction of some new game rules were considered when finalizing the squad,” he said.
According to Church with an influx of players in the final squad that have never played at the Intrust Super Cup level, training has intensified with Church saying he is going over with them what it is like to be a Hunter and what is like to play at that level.
“We are just going over what it takes to play at the ISC level, the intensity of the game and just driving those standards during training,” he said.
“We going through what sort of values you should have as a hunter’s player, to be competitive as an individual and as a team to be extremely competitive and hard to beat as well.”
There is no major injury concerns within the squad except for Joe Joshua, the former Snax Tiger’s fullback aggravated his hamstring injury.
“He lost his footing while doing some personal training but his progressing well and completing all his sessions,” said Church.
The SP Hunters are set to travel to Australia at the end of this month.