We can win it all, insist Cowboys
THE Cowboys believe they can beat anyone after North Queensland produced a finals miracle to end Cronulla’s NRL premiership defence in an extra-time thriller.
Michael Morgan produced the heroics to clinch North Queensland its first premiership in 2015 and last night kicked a clutch field goal as the Cowboys defied the odds with a 15-14 win at Allianz Stadium to remakrably keep alive hopes of a second title in three years alive.
The Cowboys had every reason to lose to the defending premiers as injured Test duo Johnathan Thurston and Matt Scott sat in the coaches box.
But the 2015 champions defied two controversial refereeing decisions to emerge with a miraculous win and progress to an elimination final against Parramatta at ANZ Stadium next Saturday.
“We’re supposed to be cannon fodder in the finals,” Cowboys coach Paul Green said.
“It doesn’t matter what everyone else believes, it matters what we believe.
“There has been plenty of proof through the year, regardless of who we’ve played we’ve had the game to worry the opposition. We just haven’t been able to do it for long enough given the distractions and injuries we’ve had.
“Throughout all of that we’ve shown character. We’ve got the belief we can beat anyone.”
For 78 minutes yesterday it looked like North Queensland’s season was over.
But the Cowboys continued to defy the critics, scrapping their way to level scores at fulltime before Morgan slotted a field goal on the last play of the
first five-minute period of extra-time to give the Cowboys a 15-14 lead.
“We’ve shown for a big part of the season, it didn’t matter who pulled on the jersey and wore the infamous No.7 if we worked hard we can put ourselves in our games,” captain Gavin Cooper said.
“It’s not pretty at times and we look a bit flustered but we’ve been finding a way and can still find a way to go further.
“No one gave us a shot this week and no one will give us a shot next week. It’s a twohorse race every game. We think we can win.”
A horrible blunder by Antonio Winterstein in just the third minute gifted Chad Townsend Cronulla’s first try, although it appeared the Cowboys winger grounded the ball before Townsend touched down.
James Maloney was sinbinned on the stroke of halftime, giving the Cowboys the opening 10 minutes of the second half to capitalise against a 12-man Cronulla side.
It took nine minutes but the Sharks finally cracked when Kyle Feldt scored out wide to bring the Cowboys back within two points at 8-6.
North Queensland was surging when Cronulla centre Ricky Leutele was gifted a controversial penalty and the Sharks marched up the other end and scored through Jack Bird to move out to a 14-6 lead.
When Jason Taumalolo carried four defenders over the line and somehow grounded the ball the Cowboys trailed 14-12 and they equalised with two minutes left in regular time courtesy of a marginal stripping penalty.
Extra-time was much like the first 80 minutes, a combination of errors and clunky attack robbing both teams of any real opportunities apart from Morgan’s 15m shot as the siren sounded.