Cam Smith reveals his surprising dark horse contender in 2024

NRL legend Cameron Smith has revealed his belief that the North Queensland Cowboys are his dark horses to make a run at the premiership in 2024 after they notched up an impressive victory in Round 17.

The Cowboys, without six of their Origin stars, took down the reigning Premiers, the Penrith Panthers 16-6 on Sunday afternoon on the back of an impressive showing in defence.

Despite Penrith also being undermanned without their Origin stars, the showing from the Cowboys gave many faith in their ability to make a lengthy finals run and potential Grand Final appearance.

After starting the season on the heels of a disappointing run of form, the Cowboys have now won four of their last five and looked primed for a finals appearance this year.

“That was a really tough effort on the weekend with no Origin players,” Smith said on SEN 1170 Breakfast.

“They seem to be playing pretty good football without their Origin players, which is strange.

“I was there for the game where they took on the Roosters and it was one of the best games of the year, they took them on without their Origin players and had a really strong win in Sydney.

“When they get all their players back and if they can play to their capabilities, they’re a real dark horse in this competition.

“I actually had them as my premiership favourites for this year, they were a little bit disappointing in the first half of the year… but if they find their defence that we seen from a couple of seasons ago, there’s no doubt that they’ve got great ability with the football and they can find points but if they can get their defence sorted… then they’re a chance of doing some really good things in this comp.”

The Cowboys had to wait until Round 16 to get their first rest of the year, prompting Smith to urge the NRL to scrap the current system where teams get two points per bye.

“This is why I wish the NRL would scrap these two points for byes because it gives you a bit of a false sense of where everyone’s at,” Smith added.

“They had to play 15 games without a bye, some other teams have had two already.

“As soon as they get these extra points for these byes, they’ll start jumping up the ladder.”

North Queensland could leapfrog into the top four if they can get past the Manly Sea Eagles on Saturday night.