Victory tastes sweet

COWBOYS playmakers Chad Townsend and Reece Robson have already claimed their first piece of silverware for 2022 as the inaugural champions of ‘MKR’.

That is ‘My Kowboys Rules,’ a cooking contest inspired by the hit Channel 7 program that has teams of ordinary Australians partner up to see who can host the best dinner party.

Four teams put their hand up for the inaugural Cowboys edition: eventual winners Townsend and Robson, Tom Gilbert and Coen Hess, Reuben Cotter and Mitch Dunn, and Tom Dearden and Scott Drinkwater.

“It was an idea from Mitch Dunn because he thought he was the best cook and then (Tom) Gilbert thought he was, so we decided to team up and find out who was,” Townsend said.

“It’s been an awesome way to spend some time together away from training, over a meal, and a bit of banter is always fun. I guess it’s brought us together even more to sort of bond and have a bit of fun.”

Those tight bonds between players have produced results on the field.

The tight-knit Cowboys of 2022 have conceded the fewest points of any North Queensland team in 27 seasons.

The core of that success can be traced back to the off-field initiatives like My Kowboys Rules, which has helped the Cowboys transcend from a team of footy players to a group of mates willing to push themselves to the brink for the player next to them.

“I guess it’s just a sense of getting together away from footy in a casual setting during the weeknights but I guess it’s also this sense of something bigger than footy,” Gilbert, 22, said.

“It was an idea to get together at each other’s places and cook a good feed up for it and then it kind of amended into a little competition.

“A lot of relationships we have with our mates come through footy but this was just a little thing set up to get us away from footy and enjoy each other as mates.

“It was nice to have it over a good feed.

“It turned out to be a bit of a godsend because some of the meals we’ve got given were unreal. “It’s made me a bit creative in the kitchen with what some of the boys have tossed up.” Townsend and Robson won the inaugural My Kowboys Rules with an entree of bruschetta, a roast lamb and a dessert of Glacé et Chocolat - ice cream floating in a Cadbury chalice with a warm brownie, ingredients sourced from L a m b e r t ’ s Fresh Produce.