After a weekend of footy to remember with many must-watch games, it’s time to reflect on the most notable things out of Round 3 of the NRL season.
1. Cowboys are near rock bottom
The North Queensland Cowboys are at the lowest of low times at the moment as they have sunk to their third straight loss of the season, which sets their season record to a winless 0-3 to begin the 2021 year.
Their defeat came to the hands of the new look Gold Coast Titans by a whopping 36 points on Sunday night.
It was a Cowboys re-shuffle as new boss Todd Payton sent Scott Drinkwater to halfback, Valentine Holmes to fullback, and much more changes to the team.
This obviously did not improve their performance, however as the side just shown a lack of defence and rarely anything productive in attack.
North Queensland’s lock, Josh McGuire commented on the poor performance after wards by stating “We’ve been doing the same thing for three years”, and later saying “its embarrassing”.
Todd Payten was asked in the post-game press conference if there will be changes made to the 17 for their upcoming match against the Cronulla Sharks, and he answered with a strong yes.
I will not be surprised if these changes are larger their minor ones, as the way that Payten coaches he is not afraid to go after big name players, which is what she shown after Round 1 by going after Jason Taumalolo.
A positive that the Cowboys can take into the future is, although they are certainly overpaying players, the likely retirement of Michael Morgan is not far away, and this will free up cap space for the side.
2. Injury crisis builds greater argument for an 18th man option
On the weekend we witnessed one of the worst injury rounds of the modern era, as there was a list including 20 players placed on the casualty ward. The list is below.
Dylan Edwards
Joseph Tapine
Tom Eisenhuth
Sebastian Khris
Spencer Lenui
Ryan James
Brandon Smith
Ben Hunt
Lindsay Collins
Peta Hiku
Luke Keary
Jeremy Marshall-King
Lachlan Lam
Wade Graham
Bradman Best
Briton Nikora
Michael Morgan
Will Kennedy
Mitchell Moses
Sione Katoa
Note: seven of these injuries are concussion.
The main question that came from this is how many more concussions to players do we need to see before we bring in the 18th man rule. More players are victims to head knocks that have the possibility of destroying your career in a blink of an eye.
From my point of view, I think the 18th man rule should be applied and a rule in place where you can only use that 18th man after two concussions, as three concussions has only happened once in the last 184 games.
The reason why I think this rule should only apply in concussion situations is that teams will exploit the rule by faking an injury such as an ankle lateral ligament tear.
This will benefit a team because it will allow for an extra substitute to rest the faking player.
NRL head injuries are a concern. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
3. Covid forces Kevie’s men to Sydney
The news broke on Friday that there was a coronavirus case in south Queensland which has now sent greater Brisbane (including myself) into lockdown until Thursday 5pm.
This has forced the Brisbane Broncos to relocate to NSW for their ‘Good Friday’ battle with the Melbourne Storm. This could result in their being a double header at Stadium Australia on Friday night as the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Bulldogs will be playing their annual ‘Good Friday’ match at Stadium Australia before the Broncos game.
This would from my thoughts be the best option for the NRL to take as it is the most Covid safe plan and will not put pressure on Brisbane to find a stadium to play at.
The other game that would be taking place in Queensland is the Titans versus Raiders match up which the NRL are currently also making plans for. The North Queensland Cowboys will not have to worry about relocating as they are not located in greater Brisbane.
Christo
Roar Guru
I think that he is the perfect coach for North Queensland because we will hard on the players, which was shown again today when he dropped like half the team.
Tony
Roar Guru
I think that the jury's still out on whether Payten is a good coach, let alone a great one.
Christo
Roar Guru
Haha yes, everyone i know that knows Peter Parr dislikes him.
Chuck
Guest
I have commented here several times before re the Cows. DEFENSE! All their training for the next season or 2.....or more... should be solely skills training and defense. Strive to be the best defensive team in the comp. Make that the clubs culture. Long term Success will flow from there. Any other approach is just p...ing into the wind, rearranging the deck chairs. Also, nothing personal against the bloke, but I think Peter Parr should go.
Christo
Roar Guru
Yes and a lot of great coaches have you switched on from the beginning of the game until the end.
Paul
Roar Guru
It's seriously hard turning around player attitude when you're losing. I know because I had to put up with that for the past few years with Mary McGregor and the Dragons. The one thing the really good coaches do well first up is get defences right. Bennett, Bellamy, Robinson all stopped the points from being scored THEN worked on the attack. If Payten tries to fix both, he'll fail, IMO. They need to learn to win ugly, low scoring games. Attack will follow.
Christo
Roar Guru
Yeah Payton is a great coach, but it doesn't matter who coaches the cowboys at the moment, its just a player attitude thing.
Paul
Roar Guru
"The main question that came from this is how many more concussions to players do we need to see before we bring in the 18th man rule. " I wrote a piece about this topic which you might wish to read Christo. I don't agree we need an 18th player for concussions or any other type of injury. The obvious problem for Todd Payten is the Cowboys are bad on both sides of the ball. I'd hoped they'd at least sort out their defence by now, which is what they need to get right first, but that leaked pretty badly last week, as you said.