Young gun a star in victory
COWBOYS coach Todd Payten has praised the competitive nature of Tom Dearden, as the young halfback at last ended a losing streak dating back to before North Queensland’s winless run began.
The 20-year-old mid-season recruit had not tasted victory since round 1, as his new side’s season fell by the wayside after the bye.
But an electric four-try, eight-minute spell after halftime inspired a comeback 38-26 triumph over St GeorgeIllawarra, a period that included Dearden’s sixth try as a Cowboy. It capped off arguably his best performance of the year, finishing with 104 running metres, two linebreaks, a linebreak assist, a try assist and three tackle busts.
Payten has been quick to praise the way in which his new number seven had grown since touching down in Townsville, and on Saturday in Rockhampton he produced an effort that resembled the promise shown on the training paddock.
While Dearden will likely make way for the incoming Chad Townsend next year he said the developing talent had spearheaded the incoming generation of players beginning to make waves.
“I think he’s won three of our last four players’ player awards, and what I love about him is he just competes,” Payten said.
“He made a tackle on Ravalawa on a kick and he ran past six of our guys to make it. “That’s just a great example of what it takes to become an
NRL player and the way you compete.”
Payten confirmed postgame he had identified marquee man Valentine Holmes as a long-term centre, as Hamiso Tabuai-fidow made another statement at fullback.
It marks the progress of the developing players at Cowboys HQ, with a host of rising stars under the age of 23 producing moments of class. Teenager Jeremiah Nanai did not look out of place in his first starting appearance in the NRL, while Heilum Luki and Griffin Neame packed a punch.
Payten said the final game of the campaign against Manly on Saturday would still be used to put some miles under his youngsters’ legs heading into the 2022 pre-season.
He said while there was plenty of anticipation about the emerging crop, ultimately his Cowboys were still reverting to bad habits when the tide turned against them.
North Queensland went into the break down 20-10, despite piling the pressure on in the opening 10 minutes. It was in being battle hardened and willing to be patient that Payten said his team still needed to find consistently.
“It’s something for us to work with. There are better times ahead, we just need to educate them and harden them to NRL speed, physicality and decisions,” he said.
“These guys coming up from that Qcup system haven’t had a game for eight or nine weeks now. We’re asking a whole lot of them to just throw them straight in the deep end and they competed pretty hard.”