Slice of history beckons Cooper
Cowboys forward to join elite company if try comes against Sharks
GAVIN Coooper simply shrugs his shoulders and says, “It’s been a funny old year”.
North Queensland’s season hasn’t gone according to plan but Cooper will join rarefied company if he scores a try for a seventh straight match in the Cowboys’ clash with Cronulla in Sydney tonight.
He can become the first forward to achieve the feat since recently crowned Immortal Frank Burge’s eight-game streak in 1918.
Cooper also scored in six consecutive games from rounds five to 10 in 2016, and former Cowboys forward Glenn Morrison did likewise midway through 2003.
They are the only men to record the feat since the start of the State of Origin era in 1980.
Even when having an off day with his hands three weeks ago against Newcastle, Cooper still managed to score the matchwinning four-pointer with two minutes left.
“Well it’s gone now, you’ve just jinxed me,” Cooper said when told about his tilt at history.
“I wouldn’t have a clue (how the streak has happened). Some of them have been just diving on a loose ball, some of them have been off a kick, one of them was diving over from dummy-half.
“Like a hot number at roulette, no one really knows.”
In last week’s win over Brisbane it was a short ball from Matt Scott that sent Cooper over during the Cowboys’ late fightback.
He won’t have the services of Scott tonight though, with the prop suffering a recurrence of the neck injury that recently sidelined him for a month.
“We’ve got a couple of skilful forwards who like to pass the ball and he’s been missing for a little while,” Cooper said.
“That’s a bit of a reason why our footy has changed a bit.”
The Cowboys have thrown the ball around more in the past few weeks as they look to avoid their first wooden spoon since 2000.
They entered the current round in last place, behind equal-last Parramatta on points differential. The Eels played Melbourne away last night.
The Cowboys won two of their past three games, against the Knights and Broncos, by overcoming a big deficit late, and fell just short of doing so against the Roosters two weeks ago.
“It (expansive attack) has always been there, we just haven’t been controlling the ball well enough to pass it around,” Cooper said.
“When you start dropping the ball you go into your shell a little bit, which is the worst thing to do. We’ve played some good footy the last few weeks, but too little too late.”