Graham scores hat-trick in Cowboys win
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The Warriors’ NRL finals hopes were ruthlessly crushed 52-12 by a North Queensland team in which former bit-part player Michael Morgan was the driving force.
The 20-year-old has traditionally covered for Australian Test star Johnathan Thurston when the Cowboys captain is on representative duty, but the apprentice managed to shade the master in the nine-try thrashing on Saturday night.
Cowboys prop James Tamou (ankle) and interchange player Ray Thompson (shoulder) copped minor knocks in the first half and such was their team’s dominance, neither was required to return.
Winger Ashley Graham returned to the top of the NRL tryscorer’s list with a hat-trick in the nine-try belting.
For Brian McClennan’s side, needing victory to remain in the finals race, it was a dismal performance which challenged the previous week’s 45-4 loss to Cronulla as the club’s darkest day of the year.
After leading two matches against Newcastle and Manly by 18 points only to lose, they have conceded 97 points in their past two matches.
The Aucklanders gave themselves the slightest hope of revival with second-gamer Carlos Tuimavave’s 38th-minute try, but then returned to their tackle-shy ways after the break.
Centre Kane Linnett scythed his way through the defence in the 44th minute, Morgan laid the foundations for second rower Gavin Cooper to cross in the 47th and Morgan’s pass put centre Brent Tate over in the 52nd.
Even at 40-6 up with two reserves on the bench, the Cowboys weren’t finished shooting.
Hooker Aaron Payne scored from close range in the 62nd minute and then Ashley Graham completed his hat-trick in the 68th.
The Warriors lost lock Elijah Taylor before kick-off when he returned to New Zealand following the death of his father.
They managed a consolation try, via winger Manu Vatuvei, in the final minute.
The contest was as good as over when North Queensland scored four tries in the opening 19 minutes to lead 22-0.
While the performance was worthy of a top four side, wins at the weekend to Melbourne and Manly prevented the Cowboys returning to that company.
Warrior Kevin Locke left the field with a serious ankle injury during the first half.
© AAP 2013The Crowd Says (4) | Page 1 of Comments
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August 12th 2012 @ 5:24am
Mike from tari said | August 12th 2012 @ 5:24am | Report comment
Warriors, gone from eye fillet to mince meat in one season, get a few more Aussies in the team, sorry they are not teams anymore they are playing groups, what a coach.
August 12th 2012 @ 10:14am
oikee said | August 12th 2012 @ 10:14am | Report comment
Some hard decisions need made at the warriors. The line speed is very bad. Last game the sharks were making 30 metres off a kick-off. A bit better this week but it just made the warriors tired.
They need to get that second rower butter fingers off the wing and into the second row. Manu.
Everyone can see the problem except for bluey his coach.
Dont use second rowers in the centres, your on the back foot before you even go into a game. Lewis Brown is not a centre. Same as Ben Henry and Mannering.
They keep letting speed men go, the Shreck kid and Adam Henry at the Roosters, these are 2 players they should have kept, they dont have enough speed in the team. Next they will let the Fish go, and like Inu, he will come back to bite them again.
The Warriors need a career coach, a Bennett, Bellamy or Hasler, someone who can flog the guts out of them pre-season, get the baby fat off them.
Bluey is a mate, not a coach. He has had his tail absolutley whipped, dont know how long his contract is for, but the warriors wont be winning anything for awhile, they are too big, too slow, and now they have no number 6.
They will bumble around with rookie haklves for the next few years, abit like the Broncos.
August 12th 2012 @ 10:56am
NF said | August 12th 2012 @ 10:56am | Report comment
This game stated the obvious for everyone about both teams, the Cowboys are one of the top attacking sides in the competition and on there best day can beat any team and the Warriors are in a downward spiral to Mad Monday. Pretty impressive crushing and Micheal Morgan got his breakout game plus he’s a local boy from Townsville. Considering the rich history league has in North Queensland they should of got the cream of the crop when they first started but bad recruiting & over-reliance on older veterans from other clubs hinder the Cowboys progress.
August 12th 2012 @ 12:05pm
DamoS said | August 12th 2012 @ 12:05pm | Report comment
As a Warriors supporter it is disappointing that so much was spoken of after a GF last year. I’ve read stories of the issue being a hard line coach and then others that the players just aren’t trying (similar to Parra with Kearney). If the issue is the coach and I don’t tend to normally think blaming them is the answer, they need to replace by the off season as its going to get worse, a coach like Steve Folkes could get the place sorted. NZ coaches don’t work at the Warriors, we need an Aussie coach