Halves combination must click in a hurry
THE Cowboys are on the cusp of ending a four-year finals drought, thrusting the spotlight on a new halves combination that has to click in a limited amount of time.
While Scott Drinkwater has full faith that his fledging union with Tom Dearden will come together in time, he said it needed to happen sooner rather than later.
The North Queensland five-eighth has been the attacking linchpin of his side’s resurgence into the top eight. He is just one try assist from the top of the competition.
However, even though he was credited with a further three try assists in the 50-18 thrashing from Manly, he said his and Dearden’s fifthtackle options had ultimately buried any hope of reining in the Sea Eagles.
The combination is still very much in its infancy – one game and fewer than half-adozen training sessions.
Drinkwater appreciates there will be some growing pains before they get to the point where he and Jake Clifford were before Clifford joined the Knights.
However, he provided an insight into how he saw the new pairing would come together, and said they needed to find common ground on how the final-play options would be executed.
“We will keep him in a simple role and kind of let me float around and play on both edges, then get him just sticking to the middle and running with the big forwards,” Drinkwater said.
“You want to get that combination as quickly as possible considering we’re in a good position and we don’t want to be dropping games due to a lack of combinations.
“It’s probably coming on a little bit slowly, considering we’ve only had a couple of training sessions.
“But we just need to work out a few things, and know what we’re good at and what we want in each field position we get to.
“It’s going to take us time, so as long as we can nail the simple stuff – our last plays and competing – it will be good for the team.
“We need to nail the simple stuff early on and the rest we can build on as we play more games together.
“I don’t doubt we can’t score points, we’ve shown we can score points.
“It’s more our last-play options were atrocious against Manly and that cost us.”
On the ball, the Cowboys had their struggles beyond their early 12-0 lead on Friday night, but off it the combinations in defence struggled.
Dearden and Drinkwater missed six tackles each, but a shift in the former Brisbane Bronco’s edge could lighten the load.
Mitch Dunn is returning from suspension to take on Cronulla, and coach Todd Payten believes his inclusion can provide the missing piece of the puzzle that unlocks Dearden.
The versatile forward’s efficiency off the ball has made him a consistent cog in Payten’s side, and now gives the 20-year-old half the chance to cement a long-term edge combination.
Payten said he had already seen signs that Dearden was adapting to the style of play he has come into, showing
greater confidence in each session. He said the youngster could not look at the No.7 jersey he covets as a seatwarming gig for the incoming Chad Townsend. This was his chance to prove it was his position for the long haul.
“Whatever happens down the track, happens down the
track,” Payten said. “What we have in front of us is Tommy is our halfback.
“It’s his opportunity to press for that spot. We need him to lead us around the park with his talk. He needs to kick well and needs to defend well. I thought he did two parts of that pretty well.
“He’s a quiet kid, he’s not an overt character. When he came into the group he was really quiet and respectful, and I’ve seen him become louder and louder from day to day. The pressure’s on all of us if we’re serious about playing finals, but that’s a while down the track.”