Mitchell named on five man bench

by NRL

Hooker Anthony Mitchell has been added to the North Queensland NRL squad to take on St George Illawarra in round 24 of the Telstra Premiership at WIN Stadium on Monday night.

Mitchell is on a five-man bench as cover for Ray Thompson, who re-injured his left shoulder in the Cowboys' 52-12 defeat of the Warriors at Dairy Farmers Stadium on Saturday night.

The positive news for Thompson, whose match fitness will be assessed later in the week, is that his shoulder is gaining strength every day and the Cowboys have a nine-day turnaround before the Dragons clash.

Coach Neil Henry has made no other changes to the team that beat the Warriors to jump to fifth on the NRL ladder, two points behind fourth-placed Manly.

This will be the Cowboys' third appearance on Monday Night Football this season and they have a perfect record so far, with wins against Canberra (away) and Wests Tigers (home).

DRAGONS v NORTH QLD
WIN Stadium
Monday 20/08/12
7.00pm

Dragons: Jason Nightingale, Brett Morris, Chase Stanley, Matt Cooper, Daniel Vidot, Jamie Soward, Ben Hornby [c], Dan Hunt, Mitch Rein, Trent Merrin, Matt Prior, Ben Creagh, Dean Young. Subs: Josh Miller, Will Matthews, Jack Stockwell, Jack de Belin, Leeson Ah Mau (one to be omitted).

North Qld: Matthew Bowen, Ashley Graham, Brent Tate, Kane Linnett, Antonio Winterstein, Johnathan Thurston [c], Michael Morgan, Matthew Scott [c], Aaron Payne, James Tamou, Gavin Cooper, Glenn Hall, Dallas Johnson. Subs: Ray Thompson, Joel Riethmuller, Ashton Sims, Scott Bolton, Anthony Mitchell (one to be omitted).

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