Cowboys eye redemption after false start

Buoyed by the re-signing of one of their most important players, the North Queensland Cowboys will get a second chance at making a first impression on this NRL season on Saturday night.

The Cowboys face the Newcastle Knights in Townsville and will be desperate to erase the memory of their opening-round shocker against the Sydney Roosters last week.

Coach Paul Green has resisted the temptation to swing the axe, instead challenging his players to prove it was simply an anomaly – and not the start of another slack season from the competition’s perennial underachievers.

Asked if he believes the Cowboys have embraced their opportunity to make amends, Green said:

“I’d like to think so. You’d have to ask them.”

“But you can’t keep chopping and changing all the time, it’s about building some combinations – bearing in mind though that they need to be winning combinations as well.”

After a summer where few in the North Queensland camp were afraid to shy away from the club’s premiership ambitions, Green’s patience may not last too much longer.

But the mood in Townsville remains upbeat and optimistic, thanks in no small part to fullback Michael Morgan’s three-year contract extension, which will keep him tied to the club until 2018.

“He’s a terrific young player, a good young bloke and certainly the sort of guy we want to keep around the club,” Green said.

“It’s great news for the club – you can build a team around those guys and Jason Taumalolo into the future.”

Green is pleased with his side’s impeccable preparation, but he’s quick to point out he felt the same way seven days ago.

Faced with a similar challenge to the Roosters in Newcastle’s flashy outside backs – and the return from injury of Kurt Gidley – Green admits the Cowboys have redoubled their focus on defensive work this week.

“To have the performance that we did in patches surprised me a little bit given we had such a good preparation,” Green said.

“When we looked at it, it probably wasn’t as bad as what the score indicated but we were disappointed by our standards.

“There was a 10-minute period there off the back of one of our errors where we didn’t see the ball for about 11 minutes.

“That changes the complexion of the game.”

Green has been forced into making one alteration to the unchanged side he named earlier this week, with Kyle Feldt coming in to replace winger Antonio Winterstein.

Winterstein is grieving the unexpected death of his 19-year-old brother, Fotu ‘Francis’ Winterstein, who passed away on Tuesday night.

It is the second such tragedy to hit the region’s rugby league community this year, following the recent loss of Cowboys under-20s player Regan Grieve.