Rugby league Immortal Wally Lewis has lamented the Cowboys‘ failure to roll out their game plan when it mattered during their clash with Wests Tigers on Saturday.
While the Cowboys plummeted to a 24-6 deficit over the first 66 minutes of the Townsville fixture, they ran in two tries in the final 10 minutes en route to a 24-16 loss.
The last 10 minutes saw Cowboys halfback Tom Dearden, five-eighth Scott Drinkwater and fullback Valentine Holmes wrestle back greater control of the team’s attack and North Queensland play with more flare.
It’s prompted Lewis to label the Cowboys “pathetic” and left him puzzled as to why they couldn’t play in that fashion when it counted.
“It just appeared as though their game plan wasn’t being put into effect at all. They just appeared confused, the thought process of was it going to be the halfback that came up with the game plan or the five-eighth, the next receiver, and it didn’t appear as though they were any the wiser in coming up with that,” Lewis said on Wide World of Sports’ QLDER.
“Surely you’ve got to, in first-grade football, have a standard game plan which you stick to. If it doesn’t work we’ll try to alter it to a second, and then perhaps a third.
“If that doesn’t work then you try to turn the opposition around as often as possible to make life uncomfortable for them coming away from their line.
“No matter what the Cowboys put into play it seemed that there was total confusion and an inability to put that into effect.”
The Cowboys scored a 74th-minute try in which Drinkwater threw a crucial cut-out ball to Jake Granville and Dearden loomed up on the inside to complete the four-pointer.
North Queensland then snared a try in the 78th minute on the back of a lovely chain of passes from the right wing to the left, in which Drinkwater and Holmes played critical roles.
“The strange part was when they looked out of it at the end they came back to put some points on,” Lewis said.
“It looked like they were going to come back, and it inspired everybody that was watching it.
“But you just had to ask yourself the question, ‘Why the hell did it take so long to put into effect?’
“It obviously created more distress and discomfort for the coach. You could see the blood pressure going through the roof there.
“It was just confusing as to why it took so long to gain some sort of control over the opposition.”
The Cowboys are now out of finals contention in coach Todd Payten’s first season in charge and are set to meet the Eels, Dragons and Sea Eagles in their remaining games.
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