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NRL season in review (Part IV)

James Tamou is the poster boy of the Origin eligibility debate. (AAP Image/Action Photographics, Wayne Drought)
Roar Guru
24th September, 2014
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Continuing with our ongoing series of season reviews, in Part IV we have the Cowboys and Sea Eagles. Both exited the season last round thanks to controversial last-minute penalties.

The North Queensland Cowboys
In 2014 we essentially got the same Cowboys season that we got in 2013 and in 2012. A sketchy, up and down start to the year, troubled Origin period and then a feel good winning streak cut down by ‘controversy’ in the finals.

This year however there is no doubt that the Robert Lui knock on was just that, a knock on. Everybody knows that any ball that comes off a player and hits the ground is called knock on unless it goes backwards. Even then, such drops are often called a knock on.

However it ended in Sydney on the weekend and the song remains the same for the Cowboys. Johnathan Thurston is really, really good at rugby league and the Cowboys are really good in Townsville but when one of those two factors is missing they struggle and when both aren’t there, they’re no chance.

Best Player: Jason Taumalolo
So this award could probably go to Johnathan Thurston every year for the Cowboys but where’s the fun in that? Besides, Taumalolo was legitimately excellent this year. After showing flashes of promise over the previous two seasons this season Taumalolo cemented himself as one of the scariest ball runners in the competition in 2014.

Highlight
After a typically tough Origin period, the Cowboys launched their finals tilt in Round 19 with an exhilarating four-game winning streak, culminating in the 64-6 obliteration of the once-fancied Wests Tigers.

Honourable Mention
Though their struggles away from home largely continued the Cowboys did record one truly epic away win, beating the high flying Rabbitohs at Homebush in Round 24.

Lowlight
The Cowboys were almost perfect at home in 2014, losing just one game. But that one loss sure was an embarrassing one losing to a Warriors team who themselves had just been beaten at home by the mediocre Dragons.

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Dishonourable Mention
In Round 11 the Cowboys had their heaviest defeat of the season managing to concede 42 points to the lowly Canberra Raiders.

Prognosis
It is very hard to expect anything but more of the same for the Cowboys. They continue to be extraordinarily reliant on Thurston and their home-ground advantage. This season the Cowboys won 11 of 12 home games, scoring over 30 points per game and conceding only 12. Away from Townsville though they won only three games and scored just 19 points per game and leaked 21.

That’s essentially a 20-point swing from home to away.

Plus in 2015 they will lose the services of both Sims brothers as Ashton moves to Super League and Tariq moves to Newcastle to join younger brother Korbin. The team will also have to do without veteran right centre Brent Tate who has retired.

Tate’s absence this year left the Cowboys painfully thin in defence on that right edge, a fact that the Roosters took full advantage of on Friday night.

2015 Prediction: Fringe of the 8. The Cowboys will always have a prodigious home ground advantage but that same comfort at home seems to make them weaker on the road. This is unlikely to change.

The Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles
This season could easily be captioned ‘raging against the dying of the light’ for the Sea Eagles. After years of being the (non-salary cap cheating) benchmark for the league, the Eagles finally started to run out of steam towards the end of 2014.

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Retirements, salary cap releases and injuries took their toll on a forward pack that wasn’t truly elite to begin with. Then, as the form of Daly Cherry-Evans slipped towards the end of the year the team simply couldn’t muster the go forward to compete as they were bundled out in straight sets.

Meanwhile, years of nip and tuck machinations to keep the squad together finally unraveled as favourite son Glenn Stewart signed with the Rabbitohs in a storm of acrimony without so much as an offer from the Eagles management.

This only added fuel to the rumours that Cherry-Evans was not exactly beloved by his teammates and it is clear that there is still a story to unfold over the off-season.

Best Player: Brett Stewart
The man known as the Prince of Brookvale may no longer be the try-scoring freak he was in his youth (92 tries in 112 games over his first five seasons), but he has instead matured into a first-rate playmaking threat.

He finished the season with 20 try assists and 14 line break assists. In what may be his last season at the Eagles if reckless speculation is to be believed, Stewart was a critical factor in creating points behind a sub-par forward pack.

Highlight
Honestly just making the finals and finishing second on the ladder was a remarkable achievement for a team battling injuries and disharmony from early in the season. No other team in the league has shown the sort of resilience and consistency that Eagles displayed this year.

Honourable Mention
While the club may be on the verge of losing one generation there were signs of hope for the future. Players like Jamie Buhrer, Peta Hiku and Jesse Sene-Lafao nominated themselves to be the new supporting cast for the all-star halves going forward.

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Lowlight
The Glenn Stewart saga may well be looked back on as the moment when a great dynasty came crashing down.

Dishonourable Mention
For all the plaudits about what a remarkable achievement it was for the team to make the finals, losing back-to-back games will be galling for a fan-base accustomed to more.

Prognosis
What a fascinating offseason awaits. Jason King and Glenn Stewart are definitely going and Anthony Watmough looks almost certain to follow. But will Brett Stewart and Steve Matai be out the door too?

And even if they stay, will they be able to replicate their stellar 2014 seasons with one foot out the door in 2015?

Meanwhile, Cherry-Evans and Kieran Foran are both off contract at the end of 2015 and one can expect their respective manager’s phones to start ringing fairly promptly on November first.

Each will probably command $1m on the free market so the Eagles face some tough choices and far sooner than they’d like.

2015 Prediction
Decline, certainly, but by how much? As with the Broncos who we reviewed last week it is hard to know what to expect from this team until we know what their squad is going to look like. Watch this space

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Next week we’ll take a break from team reviews and do our team of the year and individual awards.

Follow Lachlan on twitter @mrsports83

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