Cowboys must turn it around

NORTH Queensland coach Paul Green is under pressure after his team missed the playoffs for a second consecutive year.

The Cowboys turned in their worst performance of the season on Thursday night against the

Wests Tigers in a game they had to win to keep their slim NRL finals hopes alive.

It was a disappointing effort with the players lacking cohesion in attack and being guilty of defensive errors.

There have been excuses this year. The team has suffered injury setbacks to key players and, of course, there were the off-field issues involving high-profile recruits Ben Barba and Nene Macdonald which saw them both dumped.

However, the team’s performances over the past two seasons have been well below the expectations of the North’s rabid rugby league fans.

Supporters watching the game at Cowboys Leagues Club on Thursday night summed up the feelings of fans around the country. Initially there was a sense of disappointment but that turned to frustration and even anger as the game unfolded.

For fans of a club that became an NRL powerhouse on the back of the 2015 premiership and 2017 grand final berth, being relegated to the status of also-rans is hard to take.

The concern is that the club has learned nothing from last year’s failures and more of the same could be served up next year.

League legend Laurie Daley was calling for Green to go yesterday.

With two years to run on his contract, Green can be expected to get another 12 months at least to turn things around.

If the team does not perform next season by again challenging for the premiership, the move to the new stadium could become a huge fizzer and there will have to be consequences at Cowboys HQ.