Upsets keep coming in the NRL with the Warriors coming away from Townsville with the scalp of the Cowboys in one of the biggest surprise results of the first three rounds.
The Warriors, who won on home soil over Newcastle and then gave the Roosters a run for their money last week, improved to 2-1 with an all-round professional display at QCB Stadium to run out 26-12 winners.
Under new coach Andrew Webster they have eradicated the hot and cold inconsistency which has been their unfortunate hallmark in recent seasons.
North Queensland were missing suspended duo Scott Drinkwater and Peta Hiku but after scoring the first try of the match, they were outclassed by a hungrier visiting side.
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Webster’s signing as coach didn’t make many headlines but the former Panthers assistant has done a remarkable job transforming the Warriors in a short space of time.
Tohu Harris is tackled. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)
They have undergone plenty of roster turnover in the off-season and there were plenty of critics suggesting they would be wooden spoon contenders this year.
One of their much-maligned recruits, former Knights forward Mitch Barnett stood tall for them in Townsville before an injury ended his involvement late in the second half after 14 hit-ups for 135 running metres, a rare line break assist and 16 crunching tackles.
They conceded the first try when debutant fullback Tom Chester touched down and after Warriors hooker Wayde Egan and opposite number Reece Robson traded tries, the home side was up 12-4.
Marcelo Montoya scored the first of his two four-pointers before tries to veteran lock Jazz Tevaga, in his first appearance for the year after off-season surgeries, and winger Edward Kosi seven minutes either side of half-time put the Warriors up 22-12.
When Montoya dived over in the corner off a delightfully delayed Te Maire Martin pass midway through the second half, the Warriors led by 14 to leave the Cowboys fans stunned in silence.
“There were three or four efforts there at the end of the game where we could have just let them score and still won the game,” Webster said. “But we kept turning up for one another, we were desperate on our try line.”
Martin, who conjured up three line break assists with two of them leading to tries, could turn out to be one of the low-key signings of 2023 while his halves partner, Shaun Johnson, is showing there’s still life left in the veteran playmaker’s legs.
The win ended a 13-game losing streak in Australia and was their first victory in Queensland’s north since 2018.
There’s no denying it – the Cowboys look like a team that thought they would be title contenders this year.
But they also look like a side that is expecting it to happen rather than making it happen.
They had a lot of players enjoying breakout seasons in 2022 and based on their form over the past fortnight, they seem to have a collective second-year syndrome holding them back.
North Queensland, who stormed from 15th to a preliminary final last year, started the opening round with a bang a fortnight ago, scoring three unanswered converted tries before hanging on 19-18 at home to beat Canberra.
Since then they have been outplayed by the Broncos in Brisbane and now upset by the Warriors.
“There is something wrong with the Cowboys at the moment. They’ve made a great start to all three matches but only won one of them and that was by a point against the Raiders,” former international Greg Alexander said on Fox League commentary.
His fellow former Kangaroos halfback, Cooper Cronk agreed: “They’re best performance in Australia for a long, long time. They defended like their lives depended on it and I loved the connection they had in attack. They scored some scintillating tries.”
Cowboys coach Todd Payten is renowned for being a straight shooter and it wouldn’t surprise if he makes a few changes before next Saturday’s stoush with Gold Coast to put a few egos in check.
“I’m disappointed because the three parts you need to get right, we haven’t ticked one of those,” he said.
“Our ball control is not good enough, our discipline is not good enough, marching the opposition out of their own end. And if those two aren’t right, you’ve got to scramble and fight hard and defend your line and we’re conceding far too many points. We are not giving ourselves an opportunity to win the game.
“Some of our senior blokes need to be better, handling pressure. We’re just applying it to ourselves.”
Cowboys captain Chad Townsend said he didn’t think complacency was an issue: “We’re not getting our jobs done for the full 80 minutes. It’s a bit of accountability individually for all of us to get our jobs done for longer periods.”
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