‘Middle of the road team’: Payten’s stunning admission as Cowboys coach hands stars reality check

Cowboys coach Todd Payten admits his side must “evolve” or they will remain a “middle of the road” side following their 26-18 elimination final loss to the Sharks on Friday night.

Cronulla blew North Queensland off the park in the opening stages to take a 24-0 lead into the break which proved too high a mountain to climb for Payten’s men.

It was a somewhat similar scenario last week when Newcastle led 14-4 at half-time before the Cowboys rallied in the second half to win 28-16.

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And while North Queensland showed some fight in clawing back points, Payten said his side must correct their course or remain in stasis.

“That’s where we’ve got to evolve and I was talking to Reubes (Cotter) on the way in and he was saying the same things otherwise we are a middle of the road team,” he said.

“(We) show some flashiness but we’ve got to bite down on the mouthguard a little harder in the tough parts of the game for longer periods.

“We’ve got some ability but you can’t pick and choose when you’re doing the hard stuff of the game.

“I just thought our football attack put too much pressure on our defence…not calm enough in those moments.

“Showed a bit of fight and spirit in that second half. Probably a couple of options if they were different it might have been a different story but the way we started in that first half was too costly.”

Cotter said while he was proud of his side’s fightback, the sluggish and attention to detail proved too costly.

“Obviously we have showed what we’ve got in us at different periods,” he said.

“But you can’t give away starts like that – not in the big games. (There’s) plenty to work on.”

Controversy reared its head early when Cronulla were awarded a penalty try after five-eighth Braydon Trindall ran it on the fifth tackle and grubbered before Cotter tackled him without the ball.

Payten said copping a penalty try may have been a better outcome than losing Cotter for 10 minutes in the sin bin.

“I didn’t like it to be fair but can’t argue with it,” he said.

“I’d much prefer that to happen than have someone in the sin bin to be fair.

“The (game’s too quick and these games are quicker than average season games so it would have put us under more stress and caught up with us at the back end of the game so we’ll just cop it on the chin.”

Cotter said the foul play was unintentional and agreed with his coach’s sentiments.

“I reckon it was desperate play. I probably could have asked why but again I thought maybe I was a chance of going (to the sin bin),” he said.

Meanwhile, Cowboys veteran Kyle Feldt ended his time with the club on a sour note after being taken from the field in the first half with a calf injury.

His teammate Valentime Holmes also had his night cut short after suffering a lower leg complaint in the second stanza.

“Losing a centre and winger is hard to manage but it doesn’t numb the hurt,” Payten said.

“I don’t want to take away from what the Sharks did – we had some opportunities in that second half and that’s where we showed a fair bit of character.”

The Sharks now progress to next week’s grand final qualifier against the Panthers.