After six rounds of the 2023 NRL season three Queensland teams are sitting pretty in the top eight.
The Cowboys aren’t one of them.
Last year’s surprise packets are languishing in 15th position on the ladder having lost four games to start the season. That includes defeats to the Dolphins, Bulldogs, Warriors and Broncos, none of which played finals last season.
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Cowboys Press Conference | 04:32
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Broncos legend Darren Lockyer said it was almost approaching “panic stations” for the Cowboys ahead of a crucial match against the Warriors in New Zealand on Saturday.
“At the start of the year, I think there was a little bit of complacency, a bit of a hangover from last year and the World Cup,” he said on Nine’s QLDER this week.
“Now I think they’ve lost a bit of their confidence because they haven’t been winning footy games and they’ve forgotten the winning habits that you need to win games.
”It probably is getting to panic stations.”
It echoed a similar sentiment raised by Matty Johns late last month after the Cowboys slumped to a 14-point loss to the Warriors in Round 3.
“The Cowboys have got some real problems as far as attitude is concerned,” Johns said on SEN 1170 The Round Up.
“I would say 75 percent of their energy is exerted on attack, they’ve got little focus on defence.
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“All the most important areas to win a football game, they’re considerably worse than last year.”
League legend Billy Moore, speaking on NRL360, also put the blowtorch on the Cowboys’ defence.
“The biggest difference from last year and this year’s number is their defence,” he said.
“Last year they were conceding 15 points a game and this year they are conceding 22.
“They have one of the worst defences in the comp. They probably aren’t dominating the middle as much as they were last year.”
Moore, however, said he believed the Cowboys were one big performance away from turning things around.
“They are just off at the moment. I think they are one game away from getting it right,” he said.
“This weekend is a crucial game they are going across the ditch against the Warriors. This, I reckon, is almost a must win for them if they are going to hsow they can turn it around.”
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The Cowboys’ baffling start to the season has been made all the more glaring when compared to the early success of the Dolphins under Wayne Bennett.
The brilliant form of former Cowboys star Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, who haunted his former club in a scintillating two-try display in Round 6, has also been impossible to ignore.
Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow has emerged as one of the leading fullbacks in the game and is now in the mix for State of Origin selection prompting questions on why the Cowboys let him go.
Lockyer, however, said it was the right decision at the time.
“You had (Scott) Drinkwater, who was having a fantastic season, Taulagi and Feldt on the wings, Val Holmes,” Lockyer said on QLDER.
“He (Tabuai-Fidow) played centre at the Origin level once and did a good job.
“In hindsight, they’ve obviously lost a good player and at the moment he’s going better than Drinkwater, (but) you can’t keep them all.
“I think Hammer would’ve preferred to play fullback rather than centre, so he saw an opportunity, he’s taken it and he’s been outstanding, so credit to him. But for the Cowboys, I don’t think he had any other decision.”
Payten, meanwhile, said Tabuai-Fidow’s form came as no surprise.
“I made a decision on Hammer based on his words and actions around the back end of last year,” he said after the Cowboys loss to the Dolphins.
“I’m not disappointed or bitter about him playing well.
“He’s a nice kid and he left here a better person and better footballer. The Dolphins are reaping the rewards from some of our hard work and his application.”
