Cooper’s big ‘try’ at immortal feat

GAVIN COOPER simply shrugs his shoulders – “It’s been a funny old year”.

The Cowboys’ season hasn’t gone according to plan, but Cooper has a chance to join rarefied company should he score a try for a seventh straight match against Cronulla in Sydney tonight.

Should he do so, Cooper will become the first forward to achieve the feat since recentlycrowned Immortal Frank Burge’s eight-game streak in 1918. Cooper has scored in six consecutive games once before, from rounds five to 10 in 2016, while former Cowboys forward Glenn Morrison did likewise midway through 2003.

They are the only men to record the feat since the State of Origin era began in 1980.

Even when having an off day with his hands against Newcastle three weeks ago, Cooper still managed to score the match-winning four-pointer with two minutes left.

“Well, it’s gone now, you’ve just jinxed me,” Cooper said when told about his chance at creating 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 which sent Cooper over during their late fightback. He won’t have the services of the prop tonight after a recurrence of the neck injury which 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 the past few weeks as they look to avoid their first wooden spoon since 2000. They entered the round in last place, behind equal-last Parramatta on points differential. The Eels played Melbourne away last night.

The Cowboys have won two of their last 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.

“We’ve gone from the best completions in the comp last year to the worst. When you start dropping the ball you go into your shell a little bit, which is the worst thing to do.

“It’s not so much the attack, it’s the defence. When we get that right to start games, our game usually flows.

“We’ve played some good footy the last few weeks, but too little too late.”

Meanwhile, Cowboys coach Paul Green has confirmed Ethan Lowe will replace Scott in what will be his first NRL appearance since June.

Shaun Fensom also travelled to Sydney, but Green felt that Lowe had earned his recall from feeder club the Northern Pride.