GREEN RIDING TOWARDS THE TOP

WALCHA rider Carl Green is the best performed New South Wales rider early in the new Australian Professional Rodeo Association season.

Green is second in saddle bronc standings behind Warwick rider Michael Maher and fifth in the bull ride list behind leader Roy Dunn, of Proserpine.

In all around standings, Green is fifth and the highest-placed rider from the rough stock end of the arena.

The next best rough stock rider in the all around is Boggabri (NSW) star Cody Angland.

Green, Dunn and Sunshine Coast cowboy Sam Champ will be three to watch at the Warwick Rodeo on October 23-26.

Champ hails from Merdale on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland and was third overall in the bull ride at the Mt Isa Rodeo behind Proserpine rider Roy Dunn and Dingo star Ryan Storey.

Aspiring finalists need to finish in the top-15 by the end of the APRA season on April 30 to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo.

Warwick and Mt Isa are the two richest rodeo in the APRA and riders can dramatically move up the standings with a place at either rodeo.

Most of the action in the next three months will be in Queensland before APRA action hots up even more with the Christmas Run in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

The next APRA rodeo is the R.M. Williams Longreach Muster on September 13-14, one of only a handful of rodeos over two or more days in the APRA.

Two of the most famous rodeos in the APRA, Marrabel in South Australia, and Warwick in Queensland are in October.

Rodeo action will move to the Wide Bay and Central Queensland areas in late November with rodeos on successive days at Bundaberg and Gladstone.