Final pain pushes Jason
COWBOYS star Jason Taumalolo is still stinging from his quieter- than- usual display in last year’s grand final, revealing he’s using the hurt to help spur the team to a premiership.
Taumalolo became the first forward in NRL history to run for more than 5000m in a season last year.
But the Storm nullified his impact in the decider, restricting him to 104m off 12 runs after he ran for a combined 694m in the first three weeks of the finals.
It’s motivation for the Dally M medallist as the Cowboys look to bounce back from their Brisbane loss in Thursday’s grand final rematch.
“I didn’t really do much that game to be honest, I really let the team down in that game,” Taumalolo said of the grand final.
“I’m looking forward to Thursday night and hopefully making up for it.
“It’s definitely something I wanted to remember and take into this season. Hopefully this Thursday I’ll be motivated even more to get the win.”
Cowboys centre Justin O’Neill said the pain of losing the grand final would never diminish completely.
“It’s something that will stick with you for the rest of your career, losing a grand final,” O’Neill said.
“It’s hard enough making it to a grand final, but to go down in one ( hurts). Especially last year we really had to grind it out in the finals series to make it there and to lose in that grand final was tough.
“It’s a very hard thing to take and something I think will stick in the boys’ minds, and it may be fire for them to motivate them throughout the year.”
As a former Storm player, O’Neill knows full well his old team will be hellbent on producing their best after they were upset 10- 8 by Wests Tigers on Saturday.
It was an anticlimactic end to star fullback 300th game.
“Like any team off the back of a loss they’re always going to be fired up the week after,” O’Neill said.
“A team like Melbourne Storm are very professional and especially ( losing) a game like Billy’s 300th, they’ll be preparing for their best game this week. It’s going to be a tough one.”
Taumalolo said former Storm prop Jordan McLean had been providing some inside knowledge as he prepares Billy Slater’s for his first official NRL game against his old team.
“He was part of the three tall towers in the middle there ( at Melbourne) and Nelson ( Asofa- Solomona) gave him a rough night in the testimonial game,” Taumalolo said. “He’s tipped us up how they play in the middle and how Smithy ( Cameron Smith) works.
“With me, Macca and Matt Scott, also guys like ( Scott) Bolton, ( Coen) Hess and John Asiata, every forward pack is going to look forward to trying to get over the top of us.”