Green in a mood to swing the axe
COACH Paul Green conceded his patience is wearing thin as the misfiring Cowboys look for a way to rescue their season following an error- riddled defeat to Parramatta.
The Cowboys slumped to their 10th loss in 14 games against the last- placed Eels in Darwin on Saturday, the worst start to a season by the previous year’s grand finalist since the Sydney Roosters in 2011.
That leaves the Cowboys needing to win at least nine of their remaining 10 games to scrape into the finals which, on current form, already looks beyond them even after last year’s fairytale run to the decider from eighth place.
Green has remained fiercely loyal during his Cowboys tenure, with 14 players from their 2015 grand final triumph still at the club, but they have failed to repay their coach’s faith this season.
Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga has urged Green to make the massive call of shifting Michael Morgan to halfback, with four- time Dally M champion Johnathan Thurston to play second fiddle, believing that having more control would help Morgan rediscover his best form.
Morgan was rested on the weekend with a groin injury, but he is expected to return for Friday night’s must- win clash with the high- flying New Zealand Warriors at 1300SMILES Stadium.
A clearly frustrated Green would not reveal his selection plans to reporters at Townsville Airport yesterday, but conceded changes had to come after another insipid effort.
“I don’t tend to comment too much about team selections the day after we play, but I’ve stuck solid to some of the players for quite a while now and we haven’t been getting it done,” Green said.
“We definitely need to look at changing up some combinations to get things happening.”
The Cowboys were denied two tries for dubious forward passes which could have handed them the win over Parramatta, but Green insisted that didn’t excuse their whopping 20 errors.
“It’s basic, very fundamental errors and missing the context of the game and what needs to happen,” the coach said.
“Confidence has been an issue all year. We didn’t get off to the start we wanted so you question your confidence and you get into some losing habits.
“Unfortunately we’re having more of them than we are the winning ones. We just need to work really hard to try and keep those winning habits going.
“It’s about making sure that going into the game everyone’s clear and they’ve got the right mindset about what they need to do. That’s what we really need to drill down into and get to the bottom of.
“We need to worry less about the whole season and just focus more on the week to week stuff. At the moment it’s two steps forward and one step back.”