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.
Trim
Guest
The Broncos didn't have the field position to play an attacking style of football. Running the ball on the last on your own forty is football suicide. Their defence this season has been based on keeping a straight line. Kicking the ball into touch ensured their chase wasn't jagged and their line remained straight until JT ran backwards and caused panic on the last play of the game. If the Broncos had earned a penalty or forced the Cowboys into error coming out of their own end, they would've played the style of attacking football we've seen from them this year.
NF
Roar Guru
Ken The Broncos went away from the style that got them to the GF in that second half. I expected Hunt/Milford to run the ball, force line-drop outs,etc really pressure the Cowboys on the fifth tackle. Instead, kicking into touch was a constant let-off for the Cowboys. Running the ball on the last and forcing the Cowboys defense on every occasion could of benefit the Broncos in hindsight. Either way, they be back stronger and hungrier than ever next season.
Ken
Guest
I think you're a little off-base with your criticism of Hunt's tactics in the back-end of the second-half. He was controlling the game quite masterfully and the kicks into touch were a big factor in this. The game slowed down, his defence stayed as fresh as possible and the Cowboys dejectedly trudged back to try to bash it out of their own half again and again without any momentum. I would go as far to say that he had them beat, the Cowboys looked completely out of ideas. Obviously his ridiculous run of errors let all that pressure off and ultimately gave the Cowboys the opportunity to take the game, but his tactics before then were first rate.