Hard work, extra exhausting work after which even some extra. That’s how the Cowboys can dig themselves out of an early-season rut, in response to star hooker Reece Robson.
Speaking on theFox League podcast, Robson admitted: “We definitely haven’t started the season the way we would have liked to.”
Sitting 14th after eight rounds with three wins and 5 losses has fallen nicely wanting the expectations on the Cowboys after their beautiful 2022 season.
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The three wins haven’t come straightforward both — a one-point thriller in opposition to the Raiders, 24-12 over the Titans after which final week’s two-point win over the Knights.
Cowboys coach Todd Payten referred to as final Saturday’s win “brave” and Robson
“He was happy with the effort areas, I think that’s what he took the most out of the game and reiterated to us in the sheds afterwards,” he stated.
“Just the grittiness, especially that last set on the line defending and everyone turning up for each other. It probably wasn’t the most the orthodox set defensively but the boys just kept turning up for each other.”
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Robson stated the Cowboys, who had been one of many premiership favourites coming into the season, are “still a little while off” their greatest however believes it gained’t take lengthy to show issues round.
“It is frustrating when you’re not getting the points on the board,” Robson conceded.
“We can’t quite put our finger on it at the moment, but we know it’s just going to come down to working hard, and making sure we’re working hard at training because we know the product of our team is that the better we train it translates onto the field on the weekend.
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The 24-year-old admits the team has been “a bit shocked” by their begin to the season — and it didn’t take them lengthy to grasp it gained’t be a case of simply selecting up the place they left off in 2022.
“I think we probably realised that pretty early on,” Robson stated after being requested when the workforce realised one thing wasn’t fairly proper.
“We’ve had a pretty rough start to the season (so) we clicked pretty early going ‘we definitely need to turn things around, we can’t keep throwing games away like this.’
“You can’t win the grand final in march, but you can definitely lose it. I guess you sort of start to panic more and more as the weeks go on but I think we’ve had that attitude — not panicking — but knowing we can’t give games up in this competition so we need to give it everything.”
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But Robson denied there any form of complacency creeping in earlier than the season kicked off.
“We knew it was only going to get tougher this year so I don’t think there was any complacency. We knew it wasn’t just going to happen, we had a really good pre-season and worked really hard,” he stated.
Numerous punters tipped the Cowboys to get the wood spoon in 2022. Instead they slipped beneath the radar to complete third and fall only one transformed attempt wanting the grand ultimate.
It’s a really completely different story this 12 months — and Robson admitted he might sense a goal on the Cowboys’ backs within the opening rounds.
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“I don’t think (that’s) come as a shock to us,” he stated.
“Last year we did have a great year but we would’ve caught a few sides off guard a little bit. But we knew that wasn’t going to be the case this year, we knew we weren’t going to be getting any teams taking us lightly.
“We knew we had to be at our best every week and we certainly haven’t started the way we wanted to this year.”
Robson has been one of many Cowboys’ greatest to start out the 12 months however the extremely humble former-Dragon stored it informal when requested about his personal type.
“You sort of look at yourself when you’re losing to try and make sure you’re doing every part you can for the team and making sure you’re getting your job done — I guess that’s pretty much what I focus on each week,” he stated.
He’s coming off a breakout season the place he was referred to as into the New South Wales prolonged squad for Origin III — one thing he says was a “dream come true.”
Robson believes he’s “still a long way off” the calibre of gamers that play Origin, however lots of punters would argue that.
He stated it was a pleasant “pat on the back” to earn that decision up final season and whereas it’s “definitely always a goal to represent your state,” however his thoughts is fastened on getting the Cowboys on monitor.
Source: www.foxsports.com.au