Flying Cowboys winger finds try-scoring mojo
IT’S a try-scoring drought that has suddenly turned into a torrential monsoon.
But after overcoming the longest try-scoring drought of his career in emphatic style, Cowboys winger Kyle Feldt says he never lost belief he’d get his mojo back.
Feldt failed to cross the stripe in the first nine rounds but has scored eight tries in the past eight games.
Bizarrely his companion on the Cowboys right edge, Justin O’Neill, is yet to score a try this year but Feldt is feasting on the lead-up work by the centre and representative star Michael Morgan.
The 25-year-old revealed earlier this season contract negotiations had affected his early season form, but his performance has skyrocketed since inking a three-year deal.
“If I got one they were always going to start coming, so I wasn’t too worried,” Feldt said.
“I’m a winger that’s all I do is stand out there, catch the ball and put it down.”
That self-assessment is clearly a modest one as the Cowboys rely heavily on his high work rate out of the danger zone.
The highlight of Feldt’s resurgence was his acrobatic take over Josh Mansour off a Morgan kick to pinch a late win over Penrith in round 16.
Coincidentally it was Morgan who helped rediscover Feldt’s spark after his cross-field kick found the unmarked winger’s chest against Canterbury in round 10.
“It’s something we worked on for a couple of weeks leading up to it and it got the monkey off my back, it’s fair to say,” Feldt said.
“We practice if a fair bit. I’ve always been a pretty good jumper growing up and it’s something I’ve taken into footy.”
O’Neill said the Cowboys’ sluggish start to the year didn’t help Feldt’s cause and it was no coincidence he’d hit his straps after winning six of their past eight games.
“He found the tryline halfway through the season and now they’ve started to flow,” O’Neill said.
“He’s playing well and is a strong runner of the ball, it’s what we like to see from our outside backs.
“I think (he had) the confidence in himself that we hadn’t played our best footy at the start of the year and once that came together, the tries would come.
“He’s not only a great finisher but he’s great under the high ball. A couple of weeks ago we saw him take some catches in the air with one hand, which is massive for us if our outside backs can do that under pressure.”