COWBOYS COUNTRY
CATEGORY Five Cyclone Cowboy is bearing down on an unsuspecting Melbourne Storm.
The cyclonic low- pressure system which formed in Townsville during late August is due to make landfall at Sydney’s ANZ stadium about 6.15pm on Sunday.
The tune- up the Cowboys gave the Roosters on Saturday was just a warm- up for the hurricane beating a path towards Sydney.
Townsville forecasters yesterday were predicting a disaster … for Melbourne Storm.
“All the Cowboys have got to do to win is turn up on Sunday,” said Railway Estate barber Peter Snell yesterday.
Mr Snell, whose customer library is confined to 4WD and camping magazines, has been a barber for 39 years.
“Thirty- nine years. I don’t know if I deserve a medal or an uppercut,” he said as he snipped away at Ron Mathison’s locks yesterday.
Mr Snell and the loyal clients waiting patiently for their turn in the chair were adamant the Storm would choke under the pressure of a Cowboys stampede.
None of them were confessing to having written the Cowboys off in mid- August after the loss of four games in a row. Instead, it was as though the Cowboys’ allconquering destiny had been written in the stars in blue and yellow paint 1000 years ago.
Mr Snell is a major fan of destiny, especially when it is working in favour of the Cowboys. But, the barber to the stars is not a major fan of southerners, especially southerners who ( a) call North Queenslanders rednecks, ( b) “bag” the Cowboys and ( c) reckon they are smarter and better looking than northerners.
“Southerners all reckon we’re hillbillies up here. We’ll show them on Sunday. Even Gus Gould gave the Cowboys a wrap last Saturday,” Mr Snell said.
Season ticket holders Ian Sampson and his wife will have left for an overseas trip by Sunday and will miss seeing the game.
“We’re going to miss it. I can’t begin to say how disappointing it is,” he said.
Barber shop customer John Mohrwinkez, 73, said that as long as the Cowboys held on to the ball and didn’t make any mistakes they would win.
“They are playing good enough now to win on Sunday,” he said.
Before getting into the chair for a regulation trim, police officer Jay Higgins said if the Cowboys played the same style of football they have been playing they will win on Sunday.
“They won’t have any trouble beating the Storm if they keep playing the way they’ve been playing,” he said.
The Cowboys have a huge fan in Aymon Vagulans, general manager of Stuart fabrication firm the Nem Group. Aymon is overseeing the construction of a 20m, aluminium
catamaran with four ensuited cabins and crew quarters. It is a mammoth undertaking, not unlike the “construction” of a champion National Rugby League team.
“It all takes a lot of time and patience. Do it right and you end up with a footy team that can take on the world and a boat that can sail the world,” he said.
He said people had written the Cowboys off when Johnathan Thurston and Matt Scott were injured.
“They were down in eighth position and now here they are back at the grand final,” he said. “They need to play like they have been playing. Don’t change the line- up. What they have got now is working. And don’t let Mel- bourne control the game. That’s what the Storm is good at doing.”
Mr Vagulans didn’t think the Storm would have any psychological dominance over the Cowboys.
“The Storm won’t get into the Cowboys’ heads before the game. Our blokes are relaxed and playing great football,” he said.