The North Queensland Cowboys are set to miss the finals for a second straight season, yet Paul Green has managed to escape the NRL coaching pressure cooker.
The focus of the Sydney-centric on underperforming Sydney-based coaches and the Titans coaching saga throughout 2019 has allowed another season of woe for the Townsville-based club to go relatively unnoticed.
Green’s tenure as Cowboys coach has taken a familiar path to that of Michael McGuire’s time at Souths. A finals force for a few seasons, including a drought-breaking premiership, the side’s slipped to missing the finals in back-to-back seasons with the same core group of players because the team’s structures and game plans have become stale.
It doesn’t mean McGuire forgot how to coach; both coach and club needed a fresh approach and fresh ideas. After McGuire was moved on, Anthony Seibold took over and completely refreshed their attacking game to take virtually the same roster from 12th in 2017 to third in 2018.
(Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)
The main criticisms of Green’s coaching are his apparent lack of innovation and inability to evolve the team’s attacking structures from the success of 2014-17.
They currently sit second last for average points scored this season and have registered only 30 points or more three times since the start of 2018 – they were rounds 22, 24 and 25 last season, when a player named Johnathan Thurston was racking up try assists.
In Paul Green’s defence, it’s been a season of many distractions, with the sacking of star recruit Ben Barba just weeks before Round 1 and untimely injuries to key players throughout the season. They’ve also been on the receiving end of some poor refereeing decisions.
But using these issues as an excuse for Green only covers up the cracks, as there are several key areas and players that have not only failed to improve but have gone backwards.
Coen Hess is the biggest concern. He burst onto the scene in 2016 with raw power, aggression and skill and was rewarded with Origin selection. But since then he’s been lacklustre. He scored 17 barnstorming tries in his first 35 games but in 17 games this season he’s crossed the try line only once.
(AAP Image/Dan Peled)
We’ve witnessed the careers of Jake Granville and Justin O’Neill go backwards over the past couple of seasons. Ben Hampton hadn’t fulfilled his full potential before he went down injured.
Lachlan Coote and Ethan Lowe went from premiership players to also-rans who weren’t playing at NRL standard. They’ve rediscovered their best footy since leaving the club, with Coote dominating in the UK Super League and Lowe earning an Origin debut since moving to Souths.
Reports of player unrest surfaced a few months ago, and although the senior playing group poured cold water on those rumours, Coote blasted his former coach, saying he wasn’t upfront with him in regards to his form and future at the club and railing against a lack of communication. He felt Green had lost respect for him for no reason.
If you choose to believe what Coote said about his former coach, you’d have to question Green’s man-management skills when it comes to his players.
One could argue the plethora of young talent at North Queensland’s disposal aren’t being developed properly.
(AAP Image/Michael Chambers)
Gideon Gela-Mosby is one of the fastest players in the NRL and should be the Cowboys’ version of the Storm’s Josh Addo-Carr. Corey Jensen was a consistent performer off the bench in his 18 games in 2018 but has been used only sparingly this season despite strong performances for the Townsville Blackhawks and selection for the Queensland Residents representative side. Mitch Dunn is a backrower with the skill set of a Wade Graham, who had limited opportunities before he was injured.
Then there’s young Jake Clifford, a future representative half who was inexplicitly overlooked in the first few rounds after impressing in the preseason trials. He looks to be stifled by being forced to play to structure, which has limited his creative ability.
Another area of concern has been team selections over the past two seasons. Although the Cowboys have been down on luck as far as injuries are concerned, Green has constantly picked players out of position.
For example, Coen Hess, a forward, has been selected to play centre for the past couple of weeks despite the likes of Enari Tuala, Murry Tualagi, Javid Bowen and Dan Russell all being available. There seems to be a perceived lack of faith in young players coming through the Cowboys system and a reluctance to drop experienced players who are out of form. For much of 2018 Green persisted with picking the same team that was losing every week.
The Cowboys have copped plenty of criticism for their roster management as well. You can understand the club wanting to keep their premiership team together after 2015, but in hindsight they made several blunders and lost the likes of Kalyn Ponga, Viliame Kikau, Brandon Smith and Jahrome Hughes, to name just a few.
You might ask why a club would sack a coach who won a premiership in 2015 and made another grand final just two years ago.
In 2014 Green was fortunate to inherit a team that was already primed to win a premiership. To his credit, he added the missing ingredients to make the premiership dream become a reality for North Queensland.
But it’s the miracle run to the 2017 grand final that perhaps covered up the cracks that have led the team into freefall ever since.
Green deserves his fair share of the credit for how the Cowboys performed throughout that finals series, but when you look back to Round 26 of that season, had the Dragons defeated the Bulldogs, they would have qualified for the finals and the Cowboys would have finished ninth, meaning Green would currently be facing his third straight season missing the finals.
So two grand finals suggest he has the runs on the board, but you can’t discount the element of luck either. You could argue they’re in a rebuilding phase after the retirement of Johnathan Thurston, but they qualified for a grand final without him and still have a team stacked with representative players.
Green will go down as arguably North Queensland’s greatest ever coach, but the Cowboys look like a team desperate for a fresh start, both collectively and individually.
Hard knocks
Roar Rookie
Yes to all of that and to add..... 1) Somebody needs to teach the Cowboys how to tackle: all hanging off high (except Granville) and the opposition walks an extra 5-10 m 4 out of 5 times while others are frequently caught out flat footed because they can't read the play (e.g., Hess, O'Neill) or can't get there (e.g., Cooper, Scott, Maguire). 2) Somebody needs to teach the Cowboys how to pass: a lot of 14 yr-olds do a better job. 3) Thurston made Green look good; the 2017 run to the finals was mainly fluke and not due to Green.
Dogs Boddy
Roar Rookie
Good point Larry and I may have given poor JT13 a bit of a smear there. I sincerely hope he sticks around, he seems like the kind of bloke that would. But you have to admit the Cowboys he joined and resigned with were a very different team to the ones currently running around.
Rob
Guest
I think GGM was a victim of a home town games man ship. Green is probably like yourself came up with a game plan that suited his slow ageing team and negative ball movement. They made the field as slippery as possible and hoped the Broncos would struggle. It’s probably the worst conditions a player like GGM could play in also. Spinning his wheels and catching slippery bombs. Green will feel his decision for snubbing GGM as vindication. GGM showed far more urgency stopping a certain try and on kick chase than Drinkwater did letting the ball bounce and tackling Turpin IMO. If Drinkwater showed some urgency he probably would have earned his team an obstruction on Joe O. When Fifita pushed past defenders. Farrar strolled past Drinkwater last game standing on the goal line.
Adz Sportz
Roar Guru
Last year when the Raiders flopped out, Ricky went on record and publicly accepted responsibility and humbly admitted that not only did his team need to improve, but he himself needed to improve as a coach, and look at them now. I think it's time for Greeny to have that same brutal self assessment and honesty session with himself.
Adz Sportz
Roar Guru
It was a complete abomination of a game
Larry1950
Guest
Dogs, JT13, or JT2 as you know him, appears to be one of those rare guys who's satisfied with his job and doesn't care much that other people think he should go elsewhere to get a premiership ring. Just goes about his business putting in the effort no matter how rubbish his team mates play.. Probably not interested in being loaded down with instructions and tactics, run hard, tackle everything he can and collects his pay at the end of the day. Refreshing in a way.
Dayer
Roar Rookie
what transition stage? are you kidding me. The only team that is in transition stage is the Broncos, with the young guys playing this year. The author is correct about Green being "lost in space"..
Dogs Boddy
Roar Rookie
At first I thought this article was a bit premature, the Cowboys had been playing poor footy sure, but they are still adjusting to life without JT. After watching them last night I have to say something needs to change. That wasn't just poor footy, it was abysmal. The Titans have rightly copped a lot of flack this year, but this Cowboys team should be in the mix as well, and the coach should be getting dragged into head office pretty soon. There was just nothing happening, no real direction in attack, no real thirst for the ball. This has to be down to coaching. I laughed heartily when the half time report came back with both coaches saying they were happy with the effort but needed to tighten a few things up. At least Kearney isn't afraid to call his team crap. Brisbane were no better, but they have a pretty young squad and a new coach. The Cowboys need changes, and big ones. A new direction in coaching could really help. I bet JT2 is rethinking his 10 year contract now.
Larry1950
Guest
Well Adam, after sitting through that torture last night I think my GGM assessment was correct & you were taken in by someone with pace, broncos were ordinary & cowboys were abysmal. Looked like a wooden spoon derby.
Bart
Guest
Agreed, Rob. This comment made me laugh: "Comparing the Storm to the Cowboys is soul destroying." It sure is. It's like the scene in Spinal Tap when they are at Graceland talking about the death of Elvis and how it puts their own careers in perspective. "A bit TOO much *&@#^* perspective!", one of them says.
Bart
Guest
Agreed, Adam. That play I am referencing was a thing of beauty: the play-the-ball was on the right side of the goalposts and the entire Storm left side (a good eight or nine guys) were all fanned out behind the play the ball, each guy further left a bit deeper back leaving Addo-Carr ALL the way back. It was almost like they couldn't NOT score on the back of a formation like that. Why a smart guy like Greenie would not recognize the need for something as basic as having proper depth and shape in attack is baffling in the extreme!
Rob
Guest
Comparing the Storm to the Cowboys is soul destroying. I tend to think it’s like comparing JT and Cronk styles. The two together is the perfect mix. If an opponent is back peddling and spread out you play flat and run at them. If you have a strong defence that move up quickly getting deep and kicking to corners will turn them around. Also running from deep will allow you to move the ball and hurt them on the edges with quick hands and good early ball. It’s interesting which one is more successful. Manly hurt Melbourne by moving the ball. The Cowboys never hurt Melbourne expected in 2015 when the Cowboys pack was totally dominant and they actually passed the ball more than any other time in the last 10 years?
Adz Sportz
Roar Guru
When you watch the Storm play and compare several areas with what the Cowboys are doing, it's perplexing as to why Green isn't applying, or at least try to apply the same standards. The Storm do play with a lot of depth in their attack and when they're on a roll, they look so fast and slick whereas the Cows are always looking too flat, too slow and too predictable.
Adz Sportz
Roar Guru
I agree with most of your points. Although I think Morgan's rise to first grade can be attributed to Neil Henry as he brought him up through developmental and gave him his debut in 2010. The Walker brothers will no longer be together as Ben Walker is retiring at the end of the season. Although if the Cows come knocking, he wouldn't stay in retirement for long but I think NRL opportunities for them have now past. Cotter is only on a development contract, Green had to seek an exemption from the NRL to pick him when Baptist went down with an ACL. I think if the Cows lose tonight against the Broncos, their season is 'officially' over and Cotter might get another run to give him more experience for next year.
Bart
Guest
I don't necessarily know what is wrong with my team (probably a number of things), but I do know what is RIGHT with the good teams. Just to give one example, I watched and rewatched a scoring play the other day between Melbourne and Brisbane. When Smith (or whoever was at acting half) played the ball, Addo-Carr was back 35 metres ( ! ) from the line on the left and then charged forward to get the ball at full pace and scored. By contrast, I rarely see a Cowboy 3.5 metres back from the play-the-ball in attack. If we just had a lousy roster, I could forgive our shortcomings. But I don't think our roster is lousy. Rather, it's the lack of basic football nous (no depth in attack, for example) and the utter flatness in effort and energy that really winds me up when I watch the Cowboys. In any case, none of us REALLY has the answers. We just want to see our team play better; and I am at the very head of that queue!
3 R M
Guest
Good article mate, I was calling for the assistant coaches to go last year and they should go now but Green will probably see out most of his contract unless there is another team on the piss scandal . I am no green fan but we have lost 2 players to bad behaviour and have had a continuing large list of injuries all year . He has blooded the 2 second rowers well and they both should start next year. Opacic has definitely improved.Feldt ,lolo, asiata and Morgs have all been developed under his watch . But the forwards are not creative enough attacking the middle off the ruck, maguire runs towards the edge on the 3rd and cramps the option of that side on the 4th.green seems to stick with favourites especially Granville and appears to be hiding Cotter who seems to be a good young hooker who runs tackles and scores tries. I'd like to see the walkers there as attacking coaches with Aaron Payne. Some thing has to change for us to have the ability to put on points which is really what we don't have.
Adz Sportz
Roar Guru
That made me giggle. I'll pay that one!
Josh H
Roar Rookie
Give me Brad Parker over most of our backs any day
Josh H
Roar Rookie
Pretty harsh to be honest, Cowboys fan here and he mostly made very reasonable points
Rob
Guest
Love it. No actually it’s so true you’re now making me cry from the distress of this predicament. I hope Laurence isn’t to proud to admit he got it wrong.