Luckless Cowboys hit by the captain’s curse
AVOID black cats, walking under ladders and any broken mirrors.
That could be the advice for whoever is chosen to lead North Queensland out at Penrith on Saturday as the ‘‘captain’s curse’’ threatens to put a spanner in the works of their season.
With co-skippers Johnathan Thurston and Matt Scott out for the year, Gavin Cooper lasted less than a minute in Friday’s home game against Melbourne before his calf gave way, while winger Antonio Winterstein also suffered a hamstring injury.
It leaves a big experience void for the sixth-placed Cowboys.
Thurston missed a month with his calf injury this year and, like the halfback, Cooper suffered his in a non-contact situation.
Five-eighth Te Maire Martin is in doubt to play a Panthers team he left just a few weeks ago after leaving the ground with his knee iced up.
Michael Morgan and Scott Bolton appear to be the major contenders to take the captaincy duties while Cooper is sidelined. Bolton did the job for the first time against Canberra in Round 17 when North Queensland’s State of Origin players, including Morgan, were unavailable.
Morgan had already taken on more leadership as the main playmaker with Thurston out, but said he would step up as captain if coach Paul Green took that option.
“Bolts is one, Jase (Taumalolo) is another,” he said.
“Those two have been great leaders on the field and I think one of those guys would handle it pretty well.”
Fit Queensland players, Morgan and Coen Hess, will use the long turnaround to take a few days off.