Cows give nothing away

COWBOYS coach Paul Green is keeping his cards close to his chest ahead of tonight’s showdown with Wests Tigers, taking 20 players with him to Sydney.

Young forward Patrick Mago was the only player from Green’s 21-man squad to miss the trip to Campbelltown yesterday, as the Cowboys con- tinue to sweat on the fitness of stars Gavin Cooper (calf), Lachlan Coote (ankle) and John Asiata (elbow).

While all three are understood to have passed their fitness tests at yesterday’s training session, Green was reluctant to declare any of the trio fit to play.

He said he would wait to see how they pulled up today before making his final decision.

Asiata was the only one of the three who was named in Green’s 17 on Tuesday, with Cooper and Coote selected on an extended bench.

When asked what line-up the club was looking at for tonight’s must-win clash, Green said: “I don’t know”.

“They trained well. They finished the session without too many hiccups.

“All indications at this stage are good but we still have to get through a flight, get over (yesterday’s) session and make sure they pull up all right and go from there.

“(Asiata) is touch and go with what he did last week (to his elbow).”

The seventh-placed Cowboys will need to win tonight’s match against the Tigers to stave off competition for a finals spot from Manly (eighth) and Dragons (ninth), as well as Canberra (10th), who could still sneak into the top eight. Stand-in skipper Michael Morgan said despite the fact the Cowboys had lost their last four matches and were facing uncertainty over Cooper and Coote, the playing group was still in good spirits.

“With the type of injuries they are, Cootey’s ankle could pull up sorer than what it was today,” Morgan said.

“Hopefully he is OK. He said he got through all right but it depends how tough he is. No one likes losing, especially having lost four now. There’s still a good vibe among the group. Everyone is still getting on well.

“The last thing you want to be doing is turning on each other and that’s something we definitely haven’t done.’’