Payten plan of attack

COACH GETS TRICKY

COWBOYS coach Todd Payten is confident he has made the right changes to his attack to break the staunch Broncos goal line defence ahead of the blockbuster Queensland derby.

The Broncos held defending premiers Penrith to just 12 points in round 1, but Payten said his team had some tricks up their sleeves when it came to Friday night’s game.

“We’ve got a couple of shapes that we think will be effective,” Payten revealed.

“For me, I would like to spend some time down there trying to tire them out in some ways – against good defensive teams you need multiple plays at the right end of the field.

“That’s going to be key for us. Be tidy out of our own end and be clean when we’ve got the ball in their part of the field.

“There’s some intricate details that I’m not going to spill the beans on, but there’s some subtle changes to what we’re trying to do with the ball.”

The Cowboys bashed away at the Raiders’ line in round 1, starting 29 plays inside the Canberra 20m line during a first-half that saw them score three tries.

But the wheels fell off the Cowboys’ battering ram in the second-half as they recorded just eight tackles in the Raiders’ red zone and failed to register a four-pointer.

Conversely, Canberra had just four first-half tackles inside the 20m before reversing their opportunities to finish with 27 from the match.

Meanwhile the Broncos stunned the NRL world with a resolute 13-12 victory over the Panthers on their home turf.

Playing in difficult conditions, Brisbane withstood all but one of 49 Penrith plays beginning in their 20m – with their only close-range try coming in the 77th minute from a Sonny Luke dummy half burrow.

When the Cowboys and Broncos played three weeks ago in a pre-season trial on the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane came away as 20-18 winners.

But in the NRL the Cowboys dominated the match-up in 2022, outscoring their rivals 78-38 across two games.

Payten said he was expecting the Broncos to be at their best this time around after impressing him in the trial.

“They (the Broncos) outmuscled us, absolutely, and they’re a highly motivated team,” he said.

“I read some comments about us embarrassing them last year, so we expect them to start fast (and) start physical.

“We played pretty good footy on the weekend for 55 minutes. We’re going to have to play for much longer.

“Defensively, it remains the same – we’ve got to be resolute on our try line.

“What we didn’t do well in the trial was defend kicks and they were ranked fourth last year for tries off kicks, so we’re going to have to be moving, getting our jobs done in that area of the last play.”