COWBOYS V KNIGHTS Parr says pride is the key

FOR the Cowboys to turn their fortunes around, and arrest the form slump they find themselves in, it all comes back to pride.

Pride for their community, pride for the North Queensland jersey, and pride in themselves.

That is the opinion of Cowboys football director Peter Parr who said that with fans finally able to return to Queensland Country Bank Stadium the team had a responsibility to reward that loyalty with a strong showing.

The trying period that has led to three consecutive losses has been compounded by injuries to experienced trio Valentine Holmes, John Asiata and Jordan Mclean – the latter of which will return tonight against the Newcastle Knights.

Those absences follow that of captain and halfback Michael Morgan, whose recovery from shoulder surgery was set back after suffering an infection.

But according to Parr that is no excuse and whoever pulls on a Cowboys jersey needs to demonstrate the pride they had in their performance.

“It’s always difficult when you go through this, you want to hold people accountable and you don’t want to accept standards that are lower than what you set,” Parr said.

“But the same token we’ve got young men there that are finding their way at NRL football – we need to care for them and make sure they’re ready to play the week after.

“When you’re missing your best players it’s always a challenge. Having some of our best and most experienced players on the sidelines over the last few weeks has tested us but that can be served as no excuse whatsoever for some of the football we’ve played.

“It shouldn’t affect the effort any player brings to the game, so while it’s a contributing factor to have that calibre of a player out of a team it can’t be used as an excuse.”

The Cowboys will have to take down a rampant Newcastle outfit who find themselves firmly entrenched at the top of the NRL ladder.

But Parr said that needs to be seen as, not just a challenge, but an opportunity.

With the competition to only contest 18 rounds this season due to the coronavirus pandemic time is against the North Queensland outfit to get themselves back into finals contention for the first time since 2017.

However Parr said there was no room to panic, no room to think any further ahead than what was in front of them week to week.

“I don’t think we can get too caught up in the length of the season or games to go,” he said.

“We just need to concentrate on making sure each training session counts and making sure we have the best possible preparation for each game. “If you want to talk about panic stations, I’ve never seen panic work at any station in life – I don’t think using the term panic is all that helpful.

“We’re up against one of the form teams in the competition.”