Morgan offers no excuses

Cowboys playmaker Michael Morgan doesn’t want kudos for being brave. He wants another premiership.

Even the harshest critic would give the Cowboys’ year a big tick for making a grand final from eighth place, with their co-captains watching from the sideline and several others playing busted.

But it speaks volume of the team’s no-excuses mindset that Morgan refused to take the easy out after Sunday’s 34-6 grand final loss to Melbourne.

“It’s not great, it’s very disappointing and a bitter pill to swallow,” Morgan said.

“The ultimate goal is you want to win a premiership. People can pat us on the back and say we’ve had a courageous year and did well to get where we did, but at the end of the day the goal is to win the comp and we didn’t do that.

“Yes, we put ourselves in a position to, which is good, but I’m just very disappointed.”

Morgan has been the NRL’s best player for the past two months, but was well contained by the Storm and didn’t have much influence.

Melbourne skipper Cameron Smith made a point of putting pressure on every Morgan kick, an area he’s improved drastically this year, with great effect.

Morgan is a certainty to be in Mal Meninga’s Australia squad for the World Cup when it is announced today.

Morgan has played all bar one of his seven Tests off the bench, and is likely to vie with Storm’s Cameron Munster and Cronulla veteran James Maloney for the no. 6 jumper.

“I had the opportunity to do it once last year at the Four Nations and I really enjoyed it,” Morgan said.

“I’d love to start, there’s no doubt about that, but just to be in the team each week and play for your country, it’s a very good feeling.

“This (grand final) will hurt for a long time. It (Australia selection) might take my mind off it a bit, but then I’ll be in camp with a few of those (Storm) guys as well.”