The Northern Pride was one of two expansion teams for the 2008 season of the QRL Wizard Queensland Cup, along with the Mackay Cutters, against whom they played their debut game.

[2] Further representation in the competition was suggested in 2006 by a Cairns-based consortium of John O'Brien (owner of Pacific Toyota, Cairns), Denis Keeffe (chairman of Events Cairns and former CEO of the North Queensland Cowboys), Nigel Tillet (president of the CDRL) and John Moore (QRL Northern Division chairman), this time with the support of Peter Parr, CEO of the North Queensland Cowboys, and 9 of the 11 local CDRL clubs.

[9] The foundation captain of the Northern Pride was former North Queensland Cowboys and St. George Illawarra Dragons player Chris Sheppard.

Former North Queensland Cowboys player Ty Williams was captain for the next three seasons (2011–2013), before retiring to captain-coach the CDRL Innisfail Leprechauns.

When matches restarted in 2021, Bowen re-signed with the Cowboys and Chris Ostwald and Jayden Hodges were named co-captains.

Newly signed hooker, Kyle Schneider was appointed captain for the 2024 season, with Ewan Moore and Evan Child as joint vice-captains.

Other players have been named as captain for pre-season trials, including Warren Jensen, Ryan Stig, Sheldon Powe-Hobbs, Jordan Biondi-Odo and Tom Hancock.

The foundation Chief Executive Officer was Dennis Keeffe (former CEO of the North Queensland Cowboys), who held the position from 2007 to 2009.

Further upgrades are proposed to enable the venue to be used for preliminary soccer matches in the lead up to the 2032 Olympic games, with construction due to start in 2025.

When Barlow Park was unavailable due to renovations, maintenance and conflicts with other events, the Pride played at nearby venues.

The Pride have relocated home games to regional venues: Davies Park, Mareeba (2014); Atherton Stadium (2016 against Burleigh Bears, and 2018 against Townsville Blackhawks); Callendar Park, Innisfail (2022 against Wynnum Manly Seagulls); Tully Showgrounds (2023 against Sunshine Coast Falcons); and Queensland Country Bank Stadium, Townsville (2024 against Souths Logan Magpies).

The Oval and Leagues Club cost around $230,000 a year to maintain, and so in December 2010 Cairns Regional Council agreed to purchase the sporting complex for $2.5m to guarantee its future as a sporting field, prevent residential development on the land and free the Northern Pride rugby league club from an oppressive debt.

The foundation captain was Chris Sheppard, who had played for the North Queensland Cowboys and St. George Illawarra Dragons.

The Pride's first grand final appearance ended in a 32–18 loss to the Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles at Stockland Park.

Maiden played for the North Queensland Cowboys, Gateshead Thunder and Hull FC, as well as representing Scotland as an international in the 2000 Rugby League World Cup.

Captain Chris Sheppard won the Duncan Hall Medal for his man-of-the-match performance, which was his last game before retirement.

The Pride finished the 2011 season in second place, but were eliminated after losing the semi-final 26-20 to Tweed Heads Seagulls at Dolphin Oval, Redcliffe.

At the end of the season, coach David Maiden resigned, while fullback Chey Bird, who scored 572 points in 94 appearances for the Pride, retired along with former North Queensland Cowboys star Rod Jensen, who scored 36 tries in 69 games for the club, second on the Pride's all-time try scorer list.

At the end of the season four of the Pride's players were offered NRL contracts and Demetriou left to take up the role of assistant coach at the North Queensland Cowboys.

While the Pride had some memorable wins, they lost more home games than they won and finished eighth, missing out on the finals series for just the second time.

They managed to finish the season in a competitive fashion, pulling off a thrilling comeback to defeat Easts Tigers 18-16 in their last home game, before narrowly falling to Tweed Seagulls 12-10 in the final round.

In August and September a special four-team 'Lightning Challenge' competition was held to give the players and fans some rugby league in what was otherwise a very quiet year.

The Northern Pride finished 8th and were knocked out of the finals series in week one, losing 30-22 to the Central Queensland Capras.

The Northern Pride finished in seventh place, but were knocked out of the finals series in week one, losing 15-14 to Wynnum Manly Seagulls.

[18] New signings included Lachlan West, Nat McGavin and Bacho Salam from the Brisbane Tigers, Dane Aukafolau (Newcastle Knights), Jensen Taumoepeau (Newtown Jets), Kyle Schneider (Mackay Cutters), Josh Allen (Canberra Raiders) and Ashton Galea (Innisfail Brothers).

Head coach Assistant coaches Updated: 13 March 2024Source(s): [1] The Cowboys split their squad of NRL and development list players between their two feeder clubs, the Pride and Mackay Cutters, with players not required for that weekend's NRL fixture heading to their Queensland Cup team.

The selection panel was Brett Allen, Rhys O'Neill, Pat Bailey, Greg Dowling, Rob White and Bob Fowler.

Joel Riethmuller (2008–2014, 2017, 108 games) (lock) Between 2008 and 2023 the Pride played at 56 different venues across Queensland, New South Wales and Papua New Guinea.

The Channel 9 commentary team included Andrew Voss, Ben Ikin, Nick Curry, Paul Green, Matthew Thompson, Scott Sattler, Adrian Vowles, Taylor Brown, Warren Boland, Drury Forbes, and Adam Jackson.

The first game broadcast from Barlow Park, Cairns was Round 13, Sunday 10 June 2012 against the Pride's traditional rivals Mackay Cutters.