The criticism across the North Queensland Cowboys is rising louder on the again of their embarrassing 44-6 loss to the Sharks, with a Queensland legend suggesting their stars might need develop into “too comfortable” after their 2022 success.
The Cowboys had been outplayed from the opening siren on Thursday evening, with Siosifa Talakai’s second minute strive setting the scene for what was a grim evening for the boys from Townsville.
Despite a “gritty” win towards the Knights in Round 8, the Cowboys weren’t in a position to go on with it on the street, persevering with a surpsingly dismal star to the yr.
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The Cowboys had been the cinderella story of the 2022 season, just one win away from a Grand Final look, regardless of many anticipating them to not threaten.
After 9 video games final season, they had been third on the ladder with six wins and three losses, solely permitting 113 factors.
12 months later, they’ve the inverse win-loss report (3-6) and have leaked a whopping 213 factors, 100 greater than this stage final season.
Maroons nice Gorden Tallis believes the Cowboys could have beceme too “comfortable” on the again of the success of final season.
“Four or five of them got Queensland jerseys, then a few of them went to the World Cup, a few got upgraded in their contracts,” Tallis mentioned on the Late Show with Matty Johns.
“Maybe they got a little bit comfortable when they came back. They didn’t have the same preseason.
“How they played last year and how good they were, people start coming at you and other teams want to model their game after you.
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“I think a lot of those guys are picking and choosing whether they put in the effort and you can see that in their performance.”
Tallis mentioned it was a disappointing efficiency after the Cowboys confirmed constructive indicators towards the Knights final week.
“I know that they are down on troops but I thought they would hang in there and build on what they did last week,” Tallis mentioned.
“They’ve gone back to a couple of weeks ago where the outside players looked like they haven’t defended much together and there’s not a lot of trust in the system.
“It was really poor. It was really soft.”
Matty Johns added: “North Queensland were diabolical tonight. From the first set of six, you could see there was just no energy in the Cowboys for whatever reason,”
Co-panellist Brian Fletcher agreed, believing there’s stark variations everywhere in the park from final yr to this yr.
“They have no punch in attack. Remember last year when Reece Robson was scoring tries for fun because they were getting quick play the balls.
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“In defence, obviously there is an issue, but it’s their attack as well.
Cowboys winger Kyle Feldt was brutally honest post-game when asked about the side’s performance.
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“We started the game the complete opposite to the way we spoke about in the sheds and all week,” Feldt informed Johnathan Thurston on Nine’s post-game protection.
“You can’t give a quality team like the Sharks the amount of possession we did. We just couldn’t defend our errors.
“We spoke about that all year, and the first set on our try line, they go straight through. Unacceptable at the moment.”
Coach Todd Payten struck a dejected determine in his post-game press convention, admitting his aspect’s efficiency was “far from pretty.”
“I’m not offering up any excuse, that was far from NRL standard tonight,” Payten mentioned.
It doesn’t get any simpler for the Cowboys subsequent weekend, as they try and get their season again on monitor towards the Roosters in Magic Round.
Source: www.foxsports.com.au