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It wasn’t to be on Game 300 for Ben Hunt, with the Cowboys able to spoil his party through a convincing 42-22 win in Townsville on Saturday night.
The veteran playmaker became the 47th NRL player to join the 300 club, but will have to remember the occasion with a loss as his struggling side recorded their sixth loss in a row.
“It’s a very special night for myself, but we just made too many schoolboy errors to be honest,” said Hunt straight after the loss. We competed very hard, kept trying to turn up but we just turned over too much ball.”
In the post-match press conference, Hunt admitted how much a win would have meant to him.
“It was really special to see the number of people out there that I didn’t expect to come tonight – old teammates and some friends who I haven’t seen for quite a while,” said Hunt.
“It was a special occasion, but I would have traded it in for a better effort and a win.”
It was a tough night for the Dragons. Their game was full of errors, dropped balls and missed opportunities along with a controversial sin-binning of Jayden Sullivan that blew the game wide open.
The changes for the Red V don’t seem to be working, with Hunt once again wearing the number nine jersey and Sullivan playing at halfback.
Fans remain confused, with Zac Lomax being left out in the cold once more. It escalated with Sullivan left sitting on the sideline for most of the match, with Hunt back at halfback and Moses Mbye taking over the dummy-half duties.
“It’s quite a situation,” said Andrew Voss on commentary. “He’s your first-choice halfback today and goes off the field in the 20th minute and doesn’t return. It’s amazing.
“It’s the storyline of the game. Absolutely staggered that Sullivan has no role to play with 13 minutes to go, arguably the most attacking surprise force last week against the Tigers. It’s a bizarre situation.”
Dragons coach Anthony Griffin explained his call on Sullivan after the match.
“We were just getting rolled in the middle,” said the coach. “And just with Mbye’s defence, I thought we needed someone fresh in the middle, and to get Ben out of there, he had done a lot of tackling through that period.”
It’s another call that has left everyone wondering how long he has left at the helm.
It was a dominating performance from the Cowboys, recording their first back-to-back win of the season. It was obvious the side relished being able to field the same team that played in their win last week.
“I’d like to think we’re getting back to our best,” said Valentine Holmes.
“This whole year, this is the first time we’ve been back-to-back with the same 17 players. You’ve got to have the same guys on the field to build camaraderie.”
The visitors had an early breakthrough when Jack de Belin crossed in just the third minute after running off a short pass from Hunt close to the line. The Cowboys levelled the score when Chad Townsend found space and kicked through for a flying Kyle Feldt to score in the corner.
When Dragons halfback Sullivan was sin-binned for a professional foul the floodgates opened. It didn’t take long for the home side to capitalise when backrower Jack Gosiewski scored the following minute against his former club.
The onslaught continued during the one-man overlap when Helium Luki crossed for the Cowboys’ third try of the night, then Tom Dearden extended the lead even further shortly after to give the Cowboys a 22-6 score line.
Hunt thought he got the Dragons back in the fight when he crossed under the posts not long before the break, but the bunker ruled a no-try with an obstruction being called on Cowboys hooker Reece Robson.
A two-point field goal to Holmes right on halftime perfectly summed up the first 40 minutes, with the veteran centre striking the ball beautifully from near the halfway line to give his side a 24-6 lead.
The Cowboys’ dominance continued in the second half when Luki crossed for his second in the 51st minute. The Dragons tried to put on a comeback when Jaydn Suá scored just minutes later, and Mikaele Ravalawa picked up a dropped ball from Holmes to race 70m to the try line.
But when Feldt crossed for his second after a Dragons error shortly after, the game seemed out of reach for the Red V.
A late consolation try to Mosese Suli made the scoreboard look more respectable for a brief moment, but he turned from hero to villain with a dropped ball minutes later that was caught by Dearden to score, and the Cowboys running away with a 20 point victory.
Griffin has moved even closer to the edge of the plank following another loss by the Dragons. The knives have been out for the Dragons coach most of the season, with this result surely adding more fuel to the fire.
Dropping players and moving others out of position, along with poor bench rotation hasn’t given the under-pressure coach the desired results.
Saturday night’s loss, along with the questionable decision to leave one of the Dragons’ most exciting attacking players in Sullivan on the bench for so long, surely sees Griffin running out of time.
When asked if the recent scrutiny of the club is having an impact on the team, Hunt agreed.
“I think it is,” he said. The last four or five weeks we have been competing really hard, we have been in every game and just fallen short.”
“It’s hard enough for guys that have been around a long time let alone young kids.”
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Jayden Sullivan’s time in the naughty corner after being penalised for holding down Cowboys winger Feldt opened the game right up with the home side scoring three tries during the ten minutes he was off. But many thought the ruling was harsh, including Fox commentators Andrew Voss and Steve Roach.
“Ben Hunt argues the case. Sullivan is off to the sin bin. He’s saying I am innocent. I was being held. I was tangled,” said Voss.
“He (Sullivan) is saying he was being held,” Roach said. “It was pretty hard for him to roll away.
“That’s right, I don’t see where he could have,” added Voss.
“He gets caught underneath and that’s an absolute mess. That is late-night twister.”
“I reckon it is a tough call,” said Roach. “I think Feldt was yelling out to the referee that they won’t get off him. Someone had to go I suppose.”
“Feldt is holding the leg of Sloan and the two of them are over the top of Sullivan, who had nowhere to go would be my defence,” said Voss.
Cowboys coach Todd Payten thought the wrong player was punished.
“I thought the wrong player went to the bin. My first thought was that it should have been Sloan.”
After a disappointing start to the season, the Cowboys finally look to be showing signs of their successful 2022 season, after securing the first back-to-back win of the season.
A dominating performance in the first 40 minutes set the stage for the victory,
“A lot of glimpses to say the Cowboys are back,” said Cooper Cronk.
“A lot of high-quality attack, solid defence, and the fact that they have put two weeks back to back, that was the biggest challenge coming here.
“And taking on the emotion of Ben Hunt and the Dragons, they did a great job.”