Greeny silent on contract status
COWBOYS coach Paul Green has declined to expand on speculation over his future as the former premiership favourites look today to snap a three- game losing streak against the high- flying Warriors.
Green is off contract with the Cowboys at the end of the season, and club chairman Laurence Lancini has publicly stated they want an answer “sooner rather than later”.
But Green made it clear when asked about his contract situation at a press conference in Auckland yesterday that his sole, immediate focus was steering his side out of a three- game losing slump.
A premiership favourite at the start of the season, the Cowboys have looked tired in recent weeks and face a challenge to get their campaign back on track against the unbeaten New Zealanders.
“With respect to my deal, I’m not going to comment about that, I have an agent handling that and at this stage I just want to focus on the game,” Green said.
“We’re not that far off. Against the Broncos we got beaten by a goalpost and had we got the two points in that game, we’re probably having different conversations. That’s why it’s important to keep it in context.
“Defensively we need to be better. There was definitely an improvement last week ( in a 33- 14 home loss to Penrith) but it’s still not where we want it to be.
“There's some very good players in our team, they don’t forget how to play but after a couple of losses sometimes your confidence suffers a bit.”
Cowboys assistant coach Todd Payten believes the Warriors have found a happy medium between offloading and fixing the errors which plagued them in past years.
He said the Cowboys may have been guilty of playing too conservatively.
“I think we’ve played a bit up tight the last couple of weeks,” Payten said.
“I wouldn’t say it’s ( due to) pressure, it’s when things go against you and you’re not high on confidence, small problems can seem big problems.
“We spoke about the fact we just want to relax and play some football, and play the way that we can.
“I think the Warriors are second in the league for offloads, but they’re not throwing hand grenades out the back like they have in the past.
“It’s been really controlled and that’s been on the back of their really aggressive running and when an offload presents itself, that’s when they get it away.
“We’re going to have to improve, there’s no doubt, but I’m very confident we’re quite capable of it.”