Fate out of their hands
North Queensland face an agonising wait
THE Cowboys aren’t used to taking holidays in September when the whips are cracking.
In fact, just three men who played in Thursday’s loss to Brisbane – Scott Bolton, Gavin Cooper and Michael Morgan – have endured the anguish of missing finals as North Queensland players in their careers.
That exclusive club will grow much bigger if Penrith or Canterbury don’t do them a favour this weekend.
North Queensland’s current stretch of making finals every year since 2011 is the equal longest in the NRL, alongside Melbourne, who were stripped of points for salary cap breaches in 2010.
Cowboys players are now powerless to help their cause and face an agonising wait to see whether they’re preparing for a final next week or off to Mad Monday.
The Cowboys are shooting for a seventh straight finals campaign so it’s no surprise it’s a foreign feeling for most of the squad.
“It’s a strange one. This time of year the last few years we’re fighting for top four, not fighting to be in the finals,” Cowboys interim captain Gavin Cooper said.
“It’s unknown territory for us ... but we’re still in with a chance and we’ve still got to look forward to next week.
“We’re not switching off yet. We haven’t had much luck this year so hopefully it starts this weekend.”
Morgan missed the finals in his debut NRL season in 2010 but has had a steady diet of finals football since.
“It’s frustrating and unfortunately this time of year you can’t say ‘there’s always next week’ any more, our chance could be over,” Morgan said.
“Hopefully it’s not, we’ll stay positive and hopefully our results will go our way.
“The opportunity was in our own hands and we’ve said through the year we don’t want to be relying on other teams to win or lose, unfortunately we’re in that position now.”
He said failing to crack the Broncos’ defence when they had a wealth of possession early in the second half when down 14-6 broke their backs.
“We had a lot of momentum and it gets to a point where you do need points off the back of it and we weren’t able to,” Morgan said.
“Eventually they got down (our end) and got one on us – that hurts.
“If we keep going further in the competition, that’s what it’s going to be like against the good teams.”
The Cowboys have lost five of their last six games, the only win a come-from-behind effort against Wests Tigers last week.
But Morgan insisted they still believed they could shock the heavyweights in finals after strong recent showings against Melbourne and Cronulla.
“We’ve been challenged as a group and at no point did we stop trying, no matter what was thrown at us,” he said.
“I think we do deserve it (a finals spot).
“For a lot of those games, I felt like we were on top but couldn’t quite get there. We’ve showed we can match it with the best, it’s just a couple of defensive errors through that period that let us down.” CDRL finals preview, Page 54