TABLES TURNED
THE last time they played the Roosters in Sydney, the Cowboys wrapped up a grand final berth.
The landscape couldn’t have changed more dramatically since last year’s preliminary final. But North Queensland coach Paul Green hopes his team’s penchant for lifting against the NRL’s heavyweights will help them cause one of the season’s biggest boilovers.
On paper the second- last Cowboys are huge outsiders against the Roosters, who have shot to premiership favouritism with dominant wins over the Dragons and Manly.
However the Cowboys have lifted against top eight teams this year. They lost to top- two sides Melbourne and South Sydney by just a point in rounds 11 and 12, before being beaten by the barest of margins against the Rabbitohs again in round 16.
They have won two of 11 games against top eight teams with an average losing margin of 8.1, while that rises to 13.4 ( three wins, five losses) against bottom- eight sides.
The Cowboys broke a six- game losing streak with a comeback win over Newcastle last week.
They are just two points ahead of bottom side Parramatta in the battle for the wooden spoon, and face a tough stretch against the Roosters, Broncos ( home) and Sharks ( away) the next three weeks.
“Our form probably has been better against the better teams. We need to go in with a confident attitude and play our best footy,” Green said.
“It was just nice to get a win. It’s been a while between drinks, and it was the way we won too.
“We had to show a bit of character and it wasn’t our best performance by any means, but we still fought hard to get the win.”
The return of star Cowboys props Jordan McLean and Matt Scott from long- term injury last week was timely, with the Roosters pack to welcome back Maroons enforcer Dylan Napa.
“I thought they were both pretty good. Jordan being out for as long as he was, I thought he knocked out some quality minutes for us and tightened us up through the middle. To be able to rotate those two really helped.” He’ll weigh in as their heaviest half in two years but the Sydney Roosters are confident Ryan Matterson’s move to five- eighth won’t disrupt their dangerous left- edge attack.
Matterson will play his first game back in the No. 6 since 2016 tonight with Luke Keary out injured, but he’s bulked up significantly in that time to transform to a forward.
He now weighs in at 107kg, much heavier than what he was back then. What’s more important is how he can replicate Keary’s combination with Boyd Cordner and Latrell Mitchell over the next moth after the Roosters’ attack finally looked to have clicked.
That side of the field is now the second most potent in the NRL, with 32 of the Roosters’ tries this season having been created through that channel. They are chasing their eighth win in nine games. “I don’t think we’ll change too much of our structure on that left side,” Cordner said.
“It’s just another bigger body there to help us defensively. He’s very good defensively, Matto. We won’t be losing too much.
“They’re two different styles of players Luke and Matto and we’ll probably have to play to Matto’s strengths more. They’ll be good. He’s a great player. Just seeing some of the stuff he can do on the training field hopefully he can implement that out there on the field on game day.”