Expert
The North Queensland Cowboys will aim to push clear of the bottom of the ladder when they host the Newcastle Knights, who are almost back to full strength. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 6pm (AEST).
You would ordinarily call this a season to forget for the Knights – no Mitchell Pearce for a long stretch, as well as an injury to Kalyn Ponga over the last month makes you question what could have been.
But given where they have been over the last three seasons, with back-to-back-to-back wooden spoons, they are in a good spot with eight wins to their name.
Sitting six points out of the top eight, there is still a mathematical chance they could play finals, but they would need to win all of their remaining six games and hope for other results to go their way – by that, the Raiders, Warriors and Tigers all to struggle.
With Ponga back on the park alongside Pearce this week, we may finally see what Newcastle are capable of, although it’s been their defence which has been the issue more often than not this season, holding the worst defensive record in the competition.
On the other side of the coin, this truly has been the season from hell for the Cowboys.
They haven’t been understrength a great deal, but things simply haven’t clicked. The form Michael Morgan was in last year has been nowhere to be seen before his injury, while Johnathan Thurston looks over the hill in his final year.
Matt Scott has been in and out with injury, their backline have been ordinary and the forward pack dominated more often than not.
It leaves Paul Green’s men with just four wins from their 18 games, bringing another shonky performance into this one after going down to the St George Illawarra Dragons at home last week.
They have lost five on the trot and the only thing left now is to avoid the wooden spoon, which they are locked in the race for alongside the Parramatta Eels and Canterbury Bulldogs.
There were some promising signs from Jake Clifford in the halves last week, but it’s still tough to see where their next win is coming from.
Prediction
It’s got to the point where you just don’t know if the Cowboys can turn this around. With Kalyn Ponga back at his first NRL stomping ground, I’ll tip him and Pearce to have a big game, taking the Knights to a victory which keeps their finals chances mathematically alive.
Knights by 8.
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