The Cowboys have their mosey back

Let’s hope, for the sake of their power bill, Cronulla have had the good sense to install a solar-powered porch light. After a forgettable performance in Townsville on Saturday night the light for Harold Holt must remain on.

Yet while the Sharks’ chance to break their premiership duck passes for another season the North Queensland Cowboys’ chance for maiden success endures. And their chance, you feel, was (and is) a very real one.

All year the Cowboys have been at or near the top and after a late-season stumble, the kind that must prove the catalyst for some gear-clogging introspection, they seem to be getting back to their best. And this will delight not just their own supporters but also neutrals who, you suspect, will now be cheering them home. While the other teams left in the competition demand respect – just like, say, the Galactic Empire, Sauron’s army, or the sharks of Wall Street – they are not the kind to inspire universal affection. So all aboard the Cowboys’ hay wagon!

Last week’s effort in losing to Brisbane in one of the season’s best games was as encouraging as a loss can be. But in Townsville on Saturday night the Cowboys got back on the winner’s dais and the manner of their 39-0 victory will have done their confidence the world of good. Playing the game at a high pace they ran havoc amid the rubble caused by the sledge-hammer charges of Matt Scott, James Tamou, Gavin Cooper and Jason Taumalolo.

With room to move, players’ player of the year Johnathan Thurston tormented the Sharks – even finding time for a Fiji-style tunnel ball try-assist late in the piece. But the Sharks’ party plans were also spoiled by excellent contributions from Michael Morgan, Lachlan Coote, Kane Linnett and Jake Granville. If the Cowboys are to get past the Storm in Melbourne next week – where they lost 14-6 in round 24 – they will need a similarly multi-faceted approach.

Having emphatically “won” the wooden spoon last year the Sharks can be pleased with their season but it might take a while to come around to that viewpoint such was the disappointing way they played on Saturday night. The Sharks’ main strength was meant to be their forward pack but they were utterly dominated by their Cowboys counterparts, so everything the Sharks did was off the back foot. Thus their completion rate was woeful (just 19 of 32 sets for 59%), their kicking game failed to claw back enough ground and their attack lacked penetration. One line break was all they had to show for themselves; one more than their points tally.

So off they go back to the Shire while their conquerors’ dream lives on.

A howler of a decision, yes, but Roosters the better team

Bearing some resemblance, as they do, to fizzing sticks of dynamite, Des Hasler and James Graham are not ones to bite their tongues when they feel aggrieved. So when both men refused to blame the officials for their finals loss against the Sydney Roosters on Friday night it seems unnecessarily argumentative to contradict them. So I won’t.

Over the course of the match – a match preceded by rain and marred by poor handling from both teams (the Roosters completed just 69% of their 39 sets, the Dogs 66% of 35) – the Roosters were the better team, and that was reflected by the stats, never mind the score. The only statistic the Bulldogs “won” was penalties conceded, but that’s not worth mounting and hanging in your pool room because the Roosters give away penalties in the same devious way pokie barns give away free drinks. The sin-bin might stop such cunning but the sin-bin is seemingly like that dust-gathering condom in a spotty teenager’s wallet – just for show.

This isn’t to say the match didn’t turn on the curious decision of referee Matt Cecchin to award Kane Evans a 51st-minute try when the Roosters led 8-4 (when will the NRL stop insisting that referees guess on whether a try has been scored or not?) – and the even more curious one of video referees Bernard Sutton and Ben Galea to uphold that decision due to “inconclusive evidence to overturn” when, from our screens, the evidence looked as conclusive as it tends to get.

But an NRL game is full of turning points. Here are some others from Friday night’s elimination final: each one of the four tries the Roosters scored after the controversial Evans try; each of the 43 tackles Bulldogs players missed during the game; the back-to-front play the ball from Moses Mbye who had an unhappy game; the two knocks-ons from Bulldogs winger Curtis Rona; Roger Tuivasa-Sheck’s try-scoring burst around Brett Morris after Kane’s try (though were there not one, but two forwards passes in the lead-up?); the “easy” conversion miss by Tim Browne after Damien Cook’s try; and Shaun Kenny-Dowall’s effort in holding off three defenders to score a 65th minute try in the corner and put the game to bed.

As close as the game was at the moment Kane’s try was generously awarded the Roosters were in front and, buoyed by a strong showing from their forwards – who, at the very least, matched their gigantic counterparts – were looking considerably more potent in attack. The Bulldogs may have scored the try of the night (to Damien Cook after Sam Kasiano showed a clean pair of heels despite his dirty boots) but they rarely threatened the line. If Josh Reynolds and Mbye had keys to unlock the Roosters’ defence they left them in pocket of their jeans back in the sheds.

And so the wash up is that the Roosters move on to face the Broncos in a preliminary final (and as such have an opportunity to underline their pre-eminence over the past three months) while the Bulldogs are done for the year. If they’re honest with themselves they’ll know their season hinged on a lot more than that bad decision from the referees in the 51st minute of Friday night’s game. They’ve finished 2015 in sixth place which is a fair reflection of their year.