Cowboys made to pay by Storm for poor ball control
COWBOYS assistant coach Josh Hannay has rued North Queensland’s poor ball control after the side went down to the Melbourne Storm in their final pre-season trial on Saturday.
The Cowboys travelled to the Victorian capital with their strongest team possible, but came out of the gates dusty as a ruthless Storm outfit made them pay.
Melbourne halves Cameron Munster and Jahrome Hughes both starred for the Storm in the 22-14 victory, while young hooker Harry Grant also impressed.
The Storm made the most of a strong breeze in the first half, scoring tries through Justin Olam, Suliasi Vunivalu, Grant and Dale Finucane.
The Cowboys’ lone try in the first half came through Justin O’neill before Valentine Holmes and Kyle Feldt crossed after the break.
Speaking at Townsville Airport yesterday, Hannay said the Cowboys shot themselves in the foot with turnovers.
“The performance was a little bit scrappy, our ball control wasn’t where we’d like it to be,” Hannay said.
“As a result it meant we couldn’t get into any real rhythm with the footy and also put a fair bit of pressure on our defence.
“If anything we can take out of that trial is a reminder how crucial controlling the footy is to the success of your game.”
Hannay said the side couldn’t use pre-season as an excuse for the poor handling, as they’d completed well seven days earlier in a quagmire at Cairns.
“Our opponent completed near 100 per cent in the first half,” he said. “We expected to control the ball a lot better than what we did and for whatever reason it didn’t pan out that way.”
With three of Melbourne’s tries coming from kicks, Hannay said they’d work on how to best defuse attacking raids off opposition boots before round one.
“It’s something we work on all pre-season, defending kicks. It’s a big part of the game these days. For whatever reason we just weren’t able to clean up some of those kicks of theirs.”
Hannay said despite the disappointing result, there were flashes of good signs in both attack and defence throughout the game.
In news that will delight fans ahead of the season proper, the assistant said the side had returned from Melbourne with a clean bill of health.
“Whenever you play these trial matches that’s always a concern,” he said.
“But to come through the trial period relatively unscathed is a really good thing for us going into the season.”
Speaking to the media after the match, coach Paul Green said the side wasn’t able to get on top in the ruck because of loose carries.
“They probably won that battle but again we’ve probably got ourselves to blame for that,” Green said.
“If you’re turning the ball over cheaply all the time you don’t have as much energy to defend.
“We had a few chances early in that game and just failed to convert that to pressure.”
The Cowboys face the Broncos in a blockbuster round one fixture on March 13 at Queensland Country Bank Stadium.