WARRIORS ADD TO COWBOYS MISERY
THURSTON SET TO BE A FINALS SPECTATOR
THE Cowboys’ finals hopes now appear officially dead in the water after they fell just short in a plucky performance against the New Zealand Warriors last night.
North Queensland’s fourth straight home loss has condemned them to a 4- 11 record, and no team in history has made the semis from that position.
To make things worse, Michael Morgan suffered a bicep injury and looks likely to miss next Sunday’s second State of Origin clash.
Cowboys coach Paul Green still refused to write off their season.
“You can’t look past next week, but the bottom line is we need to be better,” Green said.
THE Cowboys are on the brink of missing the finals for the first time in almost a decade after slumping to a 23- 16 defeat to the New Zealand Warriors at 1300SMILES Stadium last night.
Winger Kyle Feldt was almost the hero for North Queensland as he produced a try and a try assist, but it wasn’t enough to inspire his side to a much- needed win in front of 11,062 fans.
Veteran prop Matt Scott ( neck) was a late scratching and those injury woes were only compounded as fullback Michael Morgan ( bicep) and utility Ben Hampton ( HIA) both left the field in the first half, with bench forward Sam Hoare also limping off in the final minute.
Morgan failed to return and appears likely to miss next Sunday’s second State of Origin clash for the Maroons with a torn bicep, but his most pressing concern will be North Queensland’s fading top eight hopes.
No team in the NRL era has recovered from a 4- 11 start to make the finals and the Cowboys would need to win all of their remaining nine games by big margins just to give themselves a chance. Coach Paul Green still refused to write off their season, but he admitted that they need to put together more consistent performances to turn things around.
“You can’t look past next week, but we need to be better,” Green said. “Our effort there for probably 80 per cent of the game was enormous. Add a little bit of execution, and don’t drift out of the game when we did and we’ll win more games than we lose for the rest of the year.
“We’re nearly there, but we’ve been nearly there in too many games this year so we’ve got to take that lesson and improve.”
A rare shot clock violation from a dropout allowed the Cowboys to score the first points against the Warriors as Johnathan Thurston slotted a penalty goal to put his side in front after 11 minutes.
But the visitors controlled the first half with tries to Ken Maumalo, Roger Tuivasa-Scheck, and Solomone Kata as they raced to an 18- 2 lead.
Fullback Morgan hyperextended his arm attempting to tackle a flying Tuivasa-Scheck before his replacement Hampton was sent off for a head injury assessment after being flattened by Kata just moments later which forced Feldt to the back.
Feldt came up with the goods as he produced an exceptional cutout pass for Javid Bowen to score in the corner and Thurston slotted the conversion as they went into the break trailing 18- 8.
The Cowboys got back within a converted try as Feldt wrestled with three Warriors defenders to score early in the second half, but discipline was an issue as the Warriors quickly regained an eightpoint buffer from a Shaun Johnson penalty goal.
Te Maire Martin snatched a bobble from Tuivasa- Scheck and raced 55m before finding Feldt in support as the prolific winger crossed for his second try of the night to get it back to 20- 16.
Thurston appeared to have levelled up with 15 minutes left to play as he collected an offload at the line from Jason Taumalolo, but the video referee ruled that Taumalolo had lost control in the tackle.
A penalty against Feldt for dissent while in possession allowed the Warriors to push their lead back out to 22- 16 before Johnson slotted a field goal in the final minute.