THE bad news for Trent Hodkinson is he has lost the battle with Kieran Foran to wear the No.7 jersey for Manly against Wests Tigers in their NRL opener on Monday night.

The good news for Manly's feeder team, the Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles, is the gun halfback is available to play for it in the defending premier's grand final rematch against Northern Pride in Cairns on Saturday night.

Hodkinson will team with fellow Manly contracted playmaker Daly Cherry-Evans in the halves for the first time in the Queensland Cup.

However, Sunshine Coast enforcer and last season's club player of the year, Phil Morwood, believes that partnership might be a fleeting luxury.

“If Trent plays a couple of games the way he played last season, I think he'll really be pushing hard for the NRL,” Morwood said yesterday.

“We'd like to keep him here, but I'd imagine he'll go down there at some stage.”

The Pride is on the second line of betting for the premiership at $4.50 behind Souths Logan ($3.50), with the Sea Eagles rated a $7 chance for back-to-back premierships.

The Pride's NRL affiliate, North Queensland, named enforcers Carl Webb and off-season recruit Willie Mason yesterday on an extended six-man bench for its blockbuster against Brisbane on Friday night.

However, the Daily has been told Mason is a certainty to survive the final cut and Webb is not likely to play for the Pride even if he misses selection for North Queensland because of a strained calf.

In other news, Bribie Island product Matt Gillett will make his NRL debut off the bench for the Broncos, and Caloundra's Joel Moon has been included on the New Zealand Warriors' bench for their clash with Gold Coast.

Sunshine Coast: 1. Dennis Sandow, 2. Michael Chapman, 3. Mark Page, 4. Kyle Lodge, 5. Zane McCarthy, 6. Daly Cherry-Evans, 7. Trent Hodkinson, 8. Phil Morwood, 9. Cameron Joyce, 10. Junior Palau, 11. Jamie Buhrer, 12. Darcy Lussick, 13. John Muir. Interchange: 14. Rob Godfrey, 15. Vic Mauro, 16. Simon Allen, 17. Ben Whiddon

Northern Pride: 1. Ben Fitzpatrick, 2. Drew Campbell, 3. Brett Anderson, 4. Mark Dalle Cort, 5. Brenton Bowen, 6. Ryan Stig, 7. Chris Sheppard, 8. Ben Laity, 9. Clint Amos, 10. Jaiman Lowe, 11. Jamie Frizzo, 12. Mark Cantoni, 13. Joel Riethmuller. Interchange: 14. Jason Roos, 15. Noel Underwood, 16. Alex Starmer, 17. Rod Griffin

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