Have the Cowboys become complacent? Matty Johns critical of ‘considerably worse’ NRL heavyweights

North Queensland were one of the Premier League favorites before a ball was kicked in 2023 – but has the exciting squad bought into their own hype?

After coming away with a win against Canberra in the opening round, the Cowboys have now lost back-to-back games and showed a shadow of their best football against the Warriors on Saturday night.

In a game they were set to win in front of their hometown fans in Townsville, the side missed 33 tackles and made 12 errors, leaving many question marks over their title credentials.

Todd Payten pointed to a “lack of confidence” defensively within the Cowboys playgroup during his post-game press conference, and after just three weeks there are now doubts about their top-8 hopes.

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League legend and analyst Matty Johns pointed to some key areas North Queensland struggled with early in their campaign and questioned their defensive resolve.

“The Cowboys have some real problems in terms of attitude,” he said SEN radio.

“I would say they put 75 percent of their energy into attack, they have little focus on defense. All important areas to win a football game, they are clearly worse than last year.

“They trust their attack markers too much… I see that with South Sydney sometimes, they go into games and they have a boast that’s like, ‘If you score 22, we’re cute, we’re going to score 26’.

“That’s how the Cowboys play, frivolous passing, no thought of holding the ball. They just believe they can win the game on the back of the offensive class. They could easily be 0-3.

“The area that would worry Todd Payten the most is that they start well and then as the game progresses and goes into arm wrestling the other side gets the upper hand.”

While the Cowboys have looked below their best overall this year, there are also some issues with some of their notable forwards.

Jeremiah Nanai has been particularly quiet so far in 2023, while the likes of Jason Taumalolo and Coen Hess failed to deliver the punch needed to topple the Warriors pack in the shock defeat.

Cowboys Forwards 2022 vs 2023

NOTE: Statistics in bold show individual areas of decline in 2023.

PLAYER	2022	2023
Jason Taumalolo	156 meters p 3.2 Duel breaks pg 65 Post-Contact Meter pg 0.9 discharges pg 24 tackles pg	171 meters pg 4.67 Tackle Breaks pg 59 Post-Contact Meter pg 0.33 relief pg 21 tackles pg
Jeremiah Nanai	99 meters pg 3.5 Duel breaks pg 0.72 relief pg 31 tackles pg	39 meters pg 1.3 Duel breaks pg 0.67 relief pg 12.3 Tackles pg
Coen Hess	70 meters pg 0.6 discharges pg 22.8 Tackles pg	68 meters pg 1 discharge side 24.7 Tackles pg
Ruben Cotter	124 meters pg 2.2 Duel breaks pg 39 tackles pg	133 meters pg 0.6 duel breaks pg 39 tackles pg
Jordan McLean	113 meters pg 23 tackles pg	115 meters pg 31 tackles pg
Griffin name	76 meters pg 16 tackles pg	85 meters pg 22 tackles pg
Jamayne Taunoa-Braun	72 meters pg 20 tackles pg	47 meters pg 22 tackles pg

Have the Cowboys bought into their own hype?

In the latest edition of The Fair Dinkum Department we discuss North Queensland’s most recent form

For the full chat about the cowboys, CLICK HERE.

Who are the Cowboys playing this weekend?

North Queensland takes over Gold Coast Titans on Saturday March 25th at the Queensland Country Bank Stadium in Townsville.

The game will kick off at 4:30 p.m. local time and 5:30 p.m. AEDT.