It’s not good enough: Holmes

VALENTINE Holmes is well aware that another thumping is on the cards for the Cowboys at the hands of the Sydney Roosters should they repeat last week’s effort.

Thursday night’s clash at Queensland Country Bank Stadium will be the first time the new Townsville venue will host a substantial crowd since the further lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, with more than 10,000 spectators expected.

It’s a game that carries plenty of weight for the Cowboys, who were put to the sword last week by a clinical Parramatta.

Sitting two places outside the top eight with three wins and five losses, the Cowboys hit a new low in the seven tries to one drubbing, which featured a promising opening passage of play from the Cowboys, only to have it undone by a performance featuring 39 missed tackles and 12 errors.

They now face a Roosters team that went toe-to-toe with the Melbourne Storm in arguably the season’s best clash, with only an extra time penalty separating the two sides.

“Every week is a statement for us. The way we’re playing, it’s not good enough for the team we have. The way we’re playing, it’s unacceptable,” Holmes said.

“We always seem to have maybe one good half and then fall off towards the second half, and in this competition it’s hard to keep winning games like that if you at least put some points up in the second half

“We usually play well in one half and then die off, and obviously in the Melbourne

Roosters game they were going at it literally for the whole 90 minutes.”

Holmes was included in the Cowboys’ starting side for last week’s 42-4 thrashing, his first game since injuring his ankle against the Warriors.

His return provided a welcome addition of class and experience to a Cowboys’ side missing Michael Morgan, Jordan Mclean and John Asiata through injury.

But it simply wasn’t enough as the relatively young Cowboys were swamped by the NRL’S most in-form team.

“Obviously it’s a very young team we’ve got. We’ve got Johnny Asiata, Michael Morgan and Jordan Mclean out, and obviously there’s a lot of experience there,” he said.

“But I still believe in the team we have and last week (against the Knights) they played really well.

“It’s obviously there in us. It’s just a lot of effort areas we need to work on.”

As for Holmes, the 13-game Test player said he was confident of bouncing back on Thursday after getting through his first game back without any problems to his ankle.

“I’ve been doing video of my own game just working on those combinations,” he said.

“We couldn’t really get the ball much though – it was hard for our skilled players to get involved much when we’re just tackling and defending the whole game. But when we did get the ball I felt like we weren’t good enough with it.

“And I need to get my work done with the team and work with some combinations.

“I guess it just comes down to training and having confidence.”