The North Queensland Cowboys top four finish aspirations have been successfully revived after their 34-6 victory over the New Zealand Warriors in Townsville on Saturday night.
It was a return to form for the squad that has played uncharacteristically uninspired football in their last two outings against the Tigers and Roosters which both resulted in losses.
The Cowboys dominated the course of the match all night by holding a 60 per cent possession advantage in which time they managed to complete close to 80pc of their sets compared to the Warriors miserable 57pc completion rate.
The Northerners also clocked up a hair over 600 more metres on the ground in the match which was pretty much in the bag by the end of the first half.
It was particularly pleasing to see Johnathan Thurston and Michael Morgan back at their playmaking best as the pair combined for four try assists and a score for Morgan.
The hole left by the injured Matt Scott was capably filled by Scott Bolton who along with James Tamou and the human wrecking ball otherwise known as Jason Taumalolo easily prevailed in the battle of the forward packs with the trio combining for a sterling 612 metres gained without a single missed tackle on the defensive end.
It was Morgan who literally and figuratively got the ball rolling in the early going with his well placed grubber easily put in by Kyle Feldt for the first points, and the pair combined in the same manner again a few minutes later to make it 10-0 Cowboys after 14 minutes of play.
At the 23 minute mark Taumalolo pushed through a sea of Warriors defenders with great velocity to increase the gap further.
The Warriors got a brief confidence boost near the end of the first half when Ryan Hoffman crossed out wide, but the wind was soon taken out of the visitors sails when Justin O’Neill crossed with an superb run right on the halftime siren, the ensuing conversion kick by Thurston notched up the 800th successful attempt of his legendary career making it 22-6 at the break.
Tries to Morgan and Ray Thompson in the second half against the flailing Warriors defence heralded an end to the Cowboys biggest form slump since the start of the 2015, which saw many pundits write their season off early, and we all know how that turned out.
The win came at a crucial time with the northerners facing the prospect of being on the outside looking in during their hunt for back-to-back premierships without the safety net of a second chance that finishing fourth or better provides.
The Cowboys will still probably need to win their last two games though to secure that buffer, with the most crucial match coming on Thursday when they travel to Belmore to take on the Bulldogs who are currently two points ahead of them on the ladder.
A win will see them leapfrog Canterbury back into fourth spot due to their superior points for and against record, and then all that will remain is for them to prevail over the Gold Coast Titans in Townsville in Round 26.
It’s also worth noting that if the current top eight configuration holds true up until the end of the regular season it will be the first time the Titans will have made the finals since 2010, and the first time ever that the three Queensland clubs make the finals in the same year.
