Harden Red Devil Shahid Khalfan prepares to feed the ball in to a scrum against Coota at Harden.
Shahid Khalfan has been picked in the 25 man squad for the upcoming NSW Country Cockatoos side who will play a week full of games in Adelaide in September. They will take on Queensland Country, Northern Territory, Victoria Country, South Australia U21s, Western Australia and Tasmania.
Shahid said, “ I am excited by it, I’m still fairly surprised, but it’s a pleasant relief to be picked and now I can get stuck into it and do my best job.”
The side is unlikely to train together due to the logistics of the size of Country NSW, however, they will arrive and train for up to 2 days before they play in the tournament. Much of the information regrading how the side will play has already been given to the players who are eagerly studying plays and structure.
Shahid said, “Half the squad have another game this week with Grand Finals so there is still eligibility for the original 36 players to be in contention”
Khalfan marks the first player to don the golden jumper since Danny Flanery, who played several season for the Cockatoos at Half-back, the same position Khalfan will likely play for the side.
The Devil’s season did not go the way his local side wanted when they were defeated by Coota in the Oils Plus Grand Final. He said, “Coota were better on the day, we have made the Grand Final 2 years in a row and we still have the crux of the club which we had 2 years ago. It was a really good season for the club and no one should hang their heads low. Well done to Coota.”
The Times will be following Shahid’s journey with the Cockatoos, he is a tenacious player who will do himself and the town proud.
