Drinkwater: Cowboys ready for ‘huge challenge’ as finals start early

It’s “do-or-die” for the North Queensland Cowboys all the way to the final whistle in the NRL regular season and Scott Drinkwater—and the rest of the playing squad—know they have to dig deep in what has become an early elimination finals.

On Saturday, the Cowboys play with their entire season on the line. They face the two-time premiers the Panthers, with a victory in Penrith potentially sneaking them into the fight eight over the Rabbitohs and the Roosters.

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The entire team knows it, fullback Drinkwater says, and every conversation leading into their final match—to be played at BlueBet Stadium at 5.30pm on Saturday, September 2—will be about lifting for the finals-come-early. The NRL may not be hyping up the playoffs just yet, but for North Queensland, they’ve already arrived.

“I wish it wasn’t do-or-die, but it’s do-or-die,” Drinkwater admitted after downing the Dolphins.

“Our elimination finals have already started [from the Dolphins game]… we got through one okay, and now we have got to go to the foot of the mountains against the best team in the comp and it’s a big challenge ahead of us. We’re obviously looking forward to such a big game and hopefully, it brings out the best in all of us.”

The Cowboys season started on a very sour note, with Todd Payten’s men winning two of their opening seven games. Then, in round 12, the squad hit their lowest lows with a 66-18 loss to the spoon-likely Tigers. Two weeks later they bowled over Melbourne 45-20, then beat Penrith 27-23, and on July 1 they demolished the Tigers by 74 points to zip.

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The run in June was enough to spark North Queensland’s struggling season.

Until round 22, when they lost 22-13 to the Titans in an ambush at Cbus Super Stadium, the team won six straight between June 4 and July 30. The surge put them right in finals contention, though it’s all on the wire after those early defeats.

“We had a good run there and then the Titans game probably ruined our momentum a little and we started worrying about winning rather than just trusting the process,” Drinkwater said.

“We spoke about it all, [the team said] don’t worry about the result, just trust our game plan, trust our process and that’s what we were doing early on, in that last little run. We had just been getting out there and trusting our process. Most of it just comes down to having fun, just take the weight off your shoulders and just go out there and play footy.

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The North Queensland fullback continued: “You can’t win every game and, you can’t be perfect every game. We’ve learnt that and I think [against the Dolphins] we just went out there and had a bit of fun and, training-wise [has been] great, everyone was dialled in.

“It’s the same for this game, just go out there, have fun and make sure everyone has a crack.”