The North Queensland Cowboys squandered a golden chance to secure finals football in 2023, going down 44-12 against the newly crowned minor premiers, the Penrith Panthers.
After making it to a preliminary final last year, the Cowboys' fall from grace came to a head last night after going down 26-0 at halftime with their season on the line.
Showing very little signs of life, North Queensland were passengers as the ruthless Panthers flexed their attacking muscle throughout the contest.
Reflecting on a disappointing 2023 season, Cowboys’ coach Todd Payten slammed his side’s performance and effort, calling all but one player on the night.
“When you’re playing a good physical team and you show any sign of weakness, they get real hungry and that first period after 20 minutes, the only real bloke I saw standing up physically was (Luciano Leilua),” he said post-game.
“We were shell-shocked. The boys were looking at each other waiting for someone else to do something when we needed to come together as a team and fight together, that was the hard part to watch.
“To go in at halftime like we did, with everything to play for and getting put on the back foot and not showing any real resolve was really, really disappointing and hard to cop.
“We had 17 plays inside our own 20 for five tries and that’s not good enough at NRL level, no matter who you’re playing.
“We sit here after 27 weeks and we’re going to watch finals, more than anything because we didn’t stop enough tries.”
The Cowboys’ defence has been an issue throughout the last two seasons but it was their dominant attack that patched the holes in last year’s finals run – the same attack that ultimately cost them a spot in the top eight.
“There’s many reasons why I’m disappointed, we know how much talent we’ve got and how much hard work has gone into it,” Payten continued.
“To find ourselves in the top eight five or six weeks ago and fall out of it, yeah it’s disappointing.
“I’m not going to offer excuses, at the end of the day we didn’t fight hard enough to stop tries, no matter who is in the team, and that’s why we’re watching finals.”
The Cowboys finished the 2023 season in 11th place with 12 wins and 12 losses to go along with a point differential of +4.