North Queensland coach Neil Henry says the Cowboys need to take a leaf out of the Warriors’ book and get back to winning ways quickly.
The Warriors held out against the Cowboys for a 20-18 victory in a frantic contest in Auckland on Monday to record their first success of the season.
“It could be a turning point for them,” Henry said.
“We need to make sure we make next week into a bit of a turning point for us.”
Defeat for the Cowboys, who were one of the pre-season title favourites, was their third in a row.
They started their campaign with a win over the Bulldogs, but the next two rounds brought heavy defeats against Melbourne and Newcastle.
Their next assignment is against Penrith in Townsville.
“We go back home and we need to be desperate for a win on home turf,” Henry said.
“We have a short turn-around – get back and freshen up, probably one training run and into a game of footy.”
Henry said he had expected a physical battle against the Warriors, given their barren run, although he didn’t agree that they had been on an 11-match losing streak, as eight of those were last year.
He said the Warriors were also at their traditional home ground of Mt Smart Stadium for the first time this year.
“We were up against a side fairly desperate to get their season kick-started and they did.”
Henry pointed to the concession of a try just before halftime as a pivotal moment.
It meant the Cowboys went into the break up 12-6, rather than 12-0.
Then their execution in the second spell, when they committed nine errors, let them down.
“We had territorial advantage in the first half and I thought we were going okay,” he said.
“But in the end, they still came through us three times for tries and our completion rate in the second half wasn’t good enough.”
Henry said teams that won games usually completed their sets up to 80 per cent of the time, “and we can’t be 53 per cent in 40 minutes of footy.”
Rellum
Roar Guru
I don't think a couple of bad games is reason to move one of the best fullbacks from the last 10 years. Bowen had a slow start to last season as well.
RMC
Roar Pro
As a Cowboys fan Im bitterly disappointed by the last two weeks in particular. In the Storm game they were in the match at 18 - 10 but they blew a try and then let the floodgate open. But in the last two weeks they have been terrible. Simple errors and taking unnecessary risks have been really hurting them. They often stand very flat when there is not much on - its too high risk. Bowen has had a poor start to the season. If he can't find form in a few weeks maybe they could use him at dummy-half with Greenshields at fullback. Bowen was very good when used at dummy-half in 2008. I was at the Cowboys vs Raiders game in 2010 when Bowen played halfback and defended on the frontline - he showed he is more than capable of defending away from fullback.
kid
Guest
The only reason I'm not putting a line through the cowboys is that they have played dogs, storm and knights already who I believe will be top 4 teams at the end of the season. Morgan has had two shockers and Bowen has gone missing. Time to test the depth they were crowing about during preseaon.