A team that started 0-3 at the beginning of the season, and got their first win through golden point against the Melbourne Storm in Round 4, has just taken out the NRL premiership.
It’s only fitting that the North Queensland Cowboys end this season with a golden point win – as it defined their season as whole.
Throughout the regular season, the North Queensland Cowboys were the comeback kings, overcoming small to large deficits in a instant. They came back from a 24-point deficit to defeat the Parramatta Eels, now the third biggest comeback in NRL history.
The Cowboys showed more heart, determination, grit and effort than ever before to claim that maiden premiership. In the past, the Cowboys have been accused of being mentally weak and folding when the pressure is on. Under Paul Green they are mentally hardened to get the win under adversity, one way or another.
One area that Paul Green can focus on for 2016 is consistency. Very rarely throughout the regular season did the Cowboys play a full 80 minutes. Throughout the season, the Cowboys were slow starters in the first 20 and it allowed various teams to jump-start the Cowboys.
As a result of the slow-start, the Cowboys become second-half specialists blitzing teams with their dynamic attack and pressure football. The Cowboys attack was more composed than years past and built of grinding a defence down through various waves of attacks from all angles ’til they break.
As shown in the grand final as the Broncos went into defensive mode at 16-12, the Cowboys kept the pressure on no matter what attacking the defensive line and wore down the Broncos.
A four-point lead might a well be zero points. The Cowboys cameback from larger deficits in 2015. It was just a matter of breaking the Broncos’s excellent defence, who held out until the final seconds.
Ben Hunt constantly kicking into touch in the second half gave the Cowboys too much possession of the football. If you give the Cowboys too much time with the ball eventually they were going to score. The Broncos can rebound from this and I look forward to the eventual Cowboys/Broncos Round 1 clash.
For now, celebrating that maiden premiership after all the highs and lows is what North Queensland will be doing for a long time. I can’t wait until the 2016 NRL season for the roller-coaster ride to begin again.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
It was sheer desperation from the Panthers in defence. They held off North Queensland's second-half comeback in a thriller for a 26-20 win.
Penrith have won plenty of games under Ivan Cleary, but few can have seen them have to grit it out as much as this…
Fans and pundits were concerned the subjective nature of the 'disruptor' rule would create inconsistencies. Fox League's Corey Parker thought this was a clear-cut…
The Cowboys made a second-half fightback against the reigning premiers - and it all started with a try to Valentine Holmes that came off…
Penrith had to make over 200 tackles in the first half and still led the Cowboys 18-4. Paul Alamoti galloped away for an intercept…
The Cowboys had all the territory but the Penrith defence stood firm. Dylan Edwards was doing everything for the Panthers, making a try-saving tackle…
