A dejected Cowboys coach Todd Payten gave his players a question he didn’t want the answer for right away in the wake of his side’s 42-12 hammering by the Sea Eagles.
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Payten put his players on notice after their poor showing in their season opener that saw them miss 35 tackles and concede 11 linebreaks in a thrashing at 4 Pines Park.
“I spoke about some of our individuals being off the mark,” Payten said.
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“I asked them to have a think about their prep, physically and mentally.
“Then I asked the question which I didn’t need an answer for straight away, but we’ll talk about that tomorrow. And then I told him to be ready to work.
“I’ll come back to work through the week, it’s Round 1, so put our heads down and stay together.”
Payten was pressed on what the question was, but wouldn’t bite.
“I didn’t need an answer at that moment and we’ll talk about it within the review,” Payten said.
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The Cowboys were blown off the park to trail 24-0 at half-time, but Payten wasn’t using the lack of possession as an excuse.
“We gave away some dumb penalties,” Payten said.
“The possession for the first 30 minutes was 70 per cent to them, 30 per cent to us. Half-time we’d done 100 more tackles.
“We had two good ball kicks, seven tackle sets, so we weren’t able to find any rhythm and we were under pressure.”
Tom Duffy had a rough debut behind a well beaten pack, but Payten took ownership of his side’s performance.
“It’s a tough for him and the club really,” Payten said.
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“I thought he was solid. Played behind a beaten forward pack, kicked OK, tackled OK. So big step up, and he’’’ be better for it and just getting behind each other and go to work.”
Cowboys skipper Tom Dearden believes his side were just well beaten at the start of the game and couldn’t turn the tide.
“I think we were just trying to gain a bit of momentum back,” Dearden said.
“They’re a side that once they get that roll on, they’re big forward, just roll forward.
“I think we just missed the jump with that, and then once they got their roll on, we couldn’t get it back and the score line just blew out.”
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Dearden paid tribute to Tom Trbojevic, who ran rings around the Cowboys, but conceded his side needed to play smarter to starve him of possession.
“He’s a great player and I think when you give him so much time and space and he’s playing off such a good roll on, he just makes you pay, and he did that tonight,” Dearden said.
“I think when you’re trying to handle a player like that, you’ve got to make sure you take away the possession from the opposition and try and make them work out of the corner and we didn’t do that well enough and he along with Cherry-Evans capitalised on the back of that.”
Dearden also praised his Maroons halves partner Daly Cherry-Evans, who played as well as he ever has at 36.
“I think he didn’t miss anything tonight,” Dearden said.
“I thought he was a great player and kept threatening us all night, and he’s done that his whole career.”
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