Jason no fan of playing it safe
SUPERSTAR forward Jason Taumalolo has urged the Cowboys to stop playing it safe as they chase a perfect finish over their last six games to secure an NRL finals berth.
The Cowboys have no margin for error in the run to the finals as they look to make up a three-point gap to the top eight, but finishing games has been their downfall this season.
Five of North Queensland’s past six matches have come down to the final moments, but they were only able to close out one of them – a 15-12 victory over the Roosters.
The Cowboys were also in front heading into the last 15 minutes of their past two matches, and Taumalolo felt they were playing too conservative as they tried to protect their lead.
“You want to win games and want to try to close them out, but when you think about being ahead too much then it kind of changes the way you play footy,” he said.
“We were playing it safe and weren’t playing the kind of footy we wanted to do and that’s move the ball around.
“We’ve found that out the hard way the last few weeks and it’s cost us a few games.
“For us, it’s not about playing safe, it’s about just playing the game we want to play the whole 80 minutes instead of just halfway through the game.”
Taumalolo insisted the Cowboys still had the belief they could go on a six-game winning streak, but he said the challenge now was backing that up on game day.
“The boys have copped a bit of criticism over the last few weeks, but everyone’s still in good spirits,” he said.
“Thursday games give a few of the boys to get a break over the weekend and think about not only their next job and the next game, but reflect on how they went.
“The players we have can definitely take us to the eight.
“I think for us it’s just about getting confidence back in how we play and just executing on game day.” The Cowboys travel to Leichhardt Oval to take on the Tigers tomorrow night in a match that could have some extra spice after Wests prevailed 27-26 in a controversial golden point game in Townsville last month.
NRL head of football Graham Annesley admitted afterwards the referees had got a crucial call wrong after missing a knock-on in the lead-up to Tigers backrower Ryan Matterson’s first-half try.
Taumalolo didn’t want to say this week would be a revenge game for the Cowboys and he insisted their focus was on ensuring those close calls aren’t enough to decide the game.
“I think we made it hard for ourselves in terms of the way we played and we let them back in the game,” he said.
“For us, it’s not really a revenge game, it’s about playing the game we can and not relying on other things to go our way too in terms of ref’s decisions or anything like that.”