TIME FOR ‘CULTURAL SHIFT’
HONEST HANNAY AIMS FOR CULTURAL SHIFT
COWBOYS coach Josh Hannay has delivered a deep blow to his troops, turning the mirror on the club and showing a gruesome reflection.
A candid Hannay revealed his belief the Cowboys need a cultural shift to stop the blame game at the clu club.
He has called for more ac accountability from his pl players after the club sl slumped to its worst losing re record in almost a decade.
The Cowboys stare d down the barrel of a potenti tial seventh-straight loss if t they fail to fire against the South Sydney Rabbitohs on Saturday night.
The last time they lost seven straight the club finished second last in 2010 – beaten out to the wooden spoon by a Storm side that was not able to earn competition points due to a salary cap breach.
It is a bleak reminder that the Cowboys – despite an impressive roster on paper – are not the premiership heavyweights they were five years ago.
Instead Hannay said they had been a bottomfour club, and it was time they accepted that fact.
“The reality is I think we have had a perception of ourselves that we’re better than where we sit for too long,” Hannay said.
The reality is ... the ladder does not lie.”
COWBOYS coach Josh Hannay has held up a mirror to the club, suggesting it is time for a cultural shift.
Last weekend the Cowboys slumped to a sixth-straight loss for the first time in almost a decade and conceded 30 points against a willing Titans.
Hannay pulled all the Cowboys players into a meeting yesterday to watch the game again and held frank discussions with them.
He said it was time the club owned up to its results.
While the Cowboys were firmly entrenched in the top eight for most the 2010s, and finished in the preliminary final or better for four straight seasons from 2014, the past three seasons have painted a vastly different picture.
“We need to be really honest with each other and ourselves and it starts with me,” Hannay said. “We have to change the culture here of looking for excuses.
“The reality is I think we have had a perception of ourselves that we’re better than where we sit for too long. The reality is for two years we have been a bottom-four football team, the ladder does not lie.
“I get the feeling for too long we have looked at that and thought we are better than that, (but) the facts are the facts. We have been a bottomfour side and it is not good enough.
“Honesty around everything (we do) is going to work us out of that hole.”
The Cowboys have struggled with a severe injury toll, with millions of dollars in salary cap sidelined at different times over the past three seasons. Multi-million-dollar recruit Valentine Holmes has been sidelined with an ankle complaint for a month while skipper Michael Morgan only returned last week after missing seven rounds of football.
But Hannay said there was no room for excuses any more and he made that clear to his players.
“I don’t think there were any surprises. The only thing I will say about my approach is I am fair,” he said. “Nothing is ever personal, and the players know that. I have been around them for a number of years and they know how I operate.
“I have built up a rapport with the playing group that I think gives me the right to be really frank with them.
“It was difficult this morning, we called for a lot of accountability, which again is something we have lacked. There was some tough viewing and some tough discussions.
“It is all about moving on now. We need to put that one behind us and move on, to produce a lot better on Saturday.”
The Cowboys will have little time to lick their wounds ahead of a clash with South Sydney at Queensland Country Bank Stadium.