Hodges shares advice for struggling Cowboys

MAROONS legend Justin Hodges has urged the struggling Cowboys to rediscover the siege mentality that propelled them to last year’s grand final after their nightmare loss to Parramatta.

But he acknowledges it is easier said than done for a team to find confidence as the pressure mounts on the preseason premiership favourites.

While coach Paul Green and captain Johnathan Thurston believe the major issue is between the players’ ears, statistics show how toothless their attack has been in 2018.

Now 4-10, the Cowboys may only be able to afford one more loss to play finals and have a tough draw for the next month, beginning with the Warriors at 1300SMILES Stadium on Friday.

“In our game, confidence is everything. When you lose confidence in yourself, you lose confidence in your teammates and the game plan,” Fox League analyst Hodges said.

“It can take a long while to get it back and when things are going bad, you look to blame everyone else around you.

“At the moment, they have to take some accountability as a team and as individuals.”

Hodges believes the Cowboys may have fallen into the trap of assuming everything would fall into place after Thurston and Matt Scott returned from injury this season.

“They need to start building back into what they did last year, because they played for each other,” Hodges said.

“They had that bond, it didn’t matter what the outside world was saying.”

Numbers compiled by Fox Sports Lab comparing last season to this year’s don’t paint a pretty picture, especially in attack.

Last year the Cowboys were one of the stingiest sides for errors and their average of 9.93 per game was the fifth best in the league. They have nosedived to dead last in this category in 2018 with 12.29.

They boasted the league’s best completion rate in 2017 but have now dropped to 14th.