The North Queensland Cowboys have secured their first win of the 2015 NRL season, storming home against Melbourne to claim a 18-17 victory in golden point extra time.
FINAL SCORE:
Cowboys 18
Storm 17
The North Queensland Cowboys have had a terrible start to 2015 and will be desperate to notch their first victory of the season when they host the Melbourne Storm. Join The Roar from 7.00pm (AEDT) for all the action from Townsville.
The Cowboys, tipped by many to be a top contender, have been very disappointing so far this campaign. After three rounds they have not won a single game.
Brisbane, the Knights and the Roosters have seen off the Cowboys with alarming ease. Melbourne will smell blood in the water and be confident of securing a win away from home.
The Storm have had a solid start this year, winnin two from three and they were unlucky to lose against Manly. Only some dubious refereeing and the lack of time cruelled them at Brookvale.
The Cowboys have a huge ask on their hands.
Paul Green has made two changes to try and motivate his team. Justin O’Neill and Kyle Feldt have been dropped in favour of Matthew Wright and Antonio Winterstein.
The key to North Queensland is Jonathan Thurston. If he fires then the Cowboys are hard to stop.
Robert Lui is again out of the picture, with Michael Morgan in the halves and Lachlan Coote at fullback. North Queensland need to start their season now.
They face the Panthers, Souths and New Zealand in the next three rounds, so there’s a possibility they could be in a very big hole very soon.
For the Storm, they are unchanged since defeating Cronulla. Melbourne were on fire against the Sharks and will be keen to create some momentum early in the season.
Blake Green is finding his feet in the halves alongside Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater and Cameron Smith seem back to their best. Young winger, the awesomely named Young Tonumaipea, has also been a great find for the Victorians.
Join The Roar from 7.00pm (AEDT) for all the happenings at 1300SMILES Stadium.
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Felix
Guest
Like the storm without Cronk Slater and Smith, the Bunnies without GI and the Broncos of old without Lockyer? Knights without Johns... The list goes on. Every team has their stars they turn to.
Jay C
Roar Guru
You do have to feel a bit sorry for the little guys. Slater and Co. get absolutely smashed every game to try and blunt their abilities. Doesn't excuse it. Origin doesn't count IMO. It has descended into something grotesque, barely recognisable as Rugby League. And I don't think there is a player from either side who hasn't played dirty. Maybe Locky.
Sleiman Azizi
Roar Guru
You're not allowed to say anything negative about the Kid. Everyone knows that.
eagleJack
Roar Guru
Pretty standard from Slater. Great player, no doubt, but has a dirty element to his game to match the great grubs
Jay C
Roar Guru
Coote was up and down. They looked slicker with Morgan at fullback personally. The Storm are a pretty decent team I think. I had them written off. But they are looking pretty sharp. Ran out of puff I think. Don't write the Cowboys off just yet. I was hoping the Cowboys would win. It gives the ladder a nice symmetry. 1 team with 4 wins and 1 team with 4 losses.
Jay C
Roar Guru
Yeah. I normally love Billy but not too sure what that was all about.
up in the north
Roar Rookie
Did they improve? Have they learned anything? Has Big Jimmy Tamou finally found his heart? Will they always rely on JT to carry their sorry arses?
afl
Guest
The cowboys without thurston would be wooden spoon material The cowboys have to be the most overrated team since Parramatta in 2010 The cowboys will miss the finals and then thurston will go back to Sydney
The eye
Guest
Sure did..in the post match interview Belly was that angry he had trouble breathing..but giving away that strip penalty in the last few minutes was unforgivable stupidity..Young T. can't be carried any longer...and that was pretty grubby of Billy carrying on with the tackle on young Coote..
Jimmmy
Guest
Mike if we got the rub of the green for the next 10 games it wouldn't make up for what's happened in the last three years. I thought the rRefs were OK , no howling mistakes , that's all you can ask for.
Jimmmy
Guest
The Cowboys DESERVED to win that game.. They stormed home ., made heaps of metres up the middle.. Jas Tam was unstoppable and all the Cowboy forwards finally played with some ticker. When Thurston decides to take Control of a game like that , you just sit back and admire his greatness. Now if we can just win a couple of games away from home who knows where it will end.
Andrew
Guest
For me melbourne got the rub of the green in the second half Mike, maybe not in the last 5 minutes but go check the tape you will find melbourne got some dodgy penalties coming out of their own half. What about slater simply losing the ball on tackle and getting a penalty and then the late tackle on Coote that should have penalised, just 2 examples and I don't even like the cowboys.
stungbyawasp
Guest
Come on Mike how much did you have on the Storm, that is some serious bias.
Mike from Tari
Guest
Funny that with 4 minutes to go Cowboys get a penalty coming out of their 10 meter zone, for what I don't know but there had been no penalty for whatever the penalty was for in the second 36 minutes, Cowboys get in & score, with 1.30 minutes to go the ball pops out in the same area as the previous penalty, good old Foxtel don't show replay but free kick gets Cowboys into good position, the ball from dummy half in the play before JT takes his winning FG is a forward pass, I don't want to hear complaints about Referees from the Cowboys anymore.
Dingobob
Guest
I thought the forwards finally stepped up and the backs were able to take advantage of the forward momentum. The Cowboys defensive patterns still needs some serious work. The next game will be another big test.
Richard Maybury
Guest
Nothing wrong with a draw. If no team can win after 80 mins then shared points is fair.
stungbyawasp
Guest
The three JT`s won this one, the two big ones wore them out and the smaller one shot `em down, still not very impressive but might start to believe now.
up in the north
Roar Rookie
Well you watched it, what do you think?
James
Guest
Draw?! id rather go to the dump and roll around. Draws are boring!
up in the north
Roar Rookie
It sounded like Granville had an impact. Big Jimmy got a bit of mongrel finally. JT2 had a big go. Coote did good things. Morgan had moments. Winterstein and Moga had moments too. JT did what he does. So with the amount of possession they had did it take till extra time to shut it out. What are they going to do when they play a good team?