Cowboys can shrug off horror defeat: Payten
Todd Payten insists his team is capable of defying the 114 years of history that suggest North Queensland’s premiership dream has been shattered by the Tigers.
Since the dawn of the NSWRL in 1908 no club has conceded 50 points in a game and gone on to win the premiership.
The Cowboys hopped in a rugby league machine and wound back the clock to the woeful 1990s as North Queensland turned in the equal-worst defensive performance in the club’s history.
The Cowboys missed 56 tackles and conceded 12 linebreaks in a 66-18 defeat that Payten recognised as the lowest point of his 62-game tenure. Although confidence within the team is bruised,
Payten rejected any suggestion that the defeat spelled the end of North Queensland’s title push in 2023.
“Very disappointing, very tough to watch; probably the worst performance we’ve had as a team since I’ve been at the club,” Payten lamented.
“Everything to play for, and we were beaten in all parts of the game across all parts of the field.
“They played some pretty good footy and we just sat on our heels and didn’t tackle or move or run hard enough. That’s the disappointing part.
“It will dent our confidence but it’s not a line through our season. We have to turn around again and turn around fast.”
Saturday’s demolition at Leichhardt Oval may not be the Cowboys’ most painful defeat to the Tigers but it is certainly in the top two.
Not since Benji Marshall’s flick-passing magic carved up North Queensland in the 2005 decider has a loss to this opposition stung quite like this.
It was a shock few expected after the Cowboys thumped the Roosters and Dragons in back-to-back wins, giving every impression the club had finally turned the corner and returned to the form that sparked a run to the preliminary final last season.
By full-time that flicker of hope had been extinguished as 11 tries punctured what was once a celebrated defensive unit. “It was a tough night. From the opening whistle they ran harder than us and tackled harder than us and it’s a simple game sometimes,” skipper Chad Townsend said.
“Collectively we weren’t on tonight. It’s disappointing and tough to take because in the last two weeks I thought we’d played some of our best footy of the season.
“This game is built on momentum and it felt like we were on the back foot the whole night.
“I felt like we had fought our way back and then there was a turning point where the momentum just halted. They capitalised on it straight away and popped the balloon we had going.”
Townsend said players would be held accountable as individuals and the team before getting back to training.
The Cowboys will remain in Sydney ahead of Friday’s clash with the red-hot Eels at Commbank Stadium, where Griffin Neame and Jason Taumalolo could make their returns from injury.