‘We had no idea’: Cowboys star’s honest admission exposes big issue with NRL’s six-again blitz

North Queensland captain Tom Dearden has expressed confusion at the NRL’s six again blitz, revealing even he was clueless as to what infringements his side had committed in the early stages of their 44-16 thrashing to the Wests Tigers.

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It comes as Cowboys coach Todd Payten said North Queensland would look to effectively reset their 2026 season this week, after two consecutive losses and thousands of kilometres in travel.

The Cowboys gave up five set restarts in the opening 10 minutes of play at Leichardt, allowing the Tigers to establish a dominant 28-2 halftime lead.

Dearden and Payten were left scratching their heads in the post-game press conference on Saturday, once again thrusting the NRL’s six again rule into the spotlight.

“The most frustrating bit is you don’t know what it’s for. I know to start the game we had three or four back-to-back, but we had no idea why. It’s not like they’re calling six again and telling us what it’s for,” Dearden said.

“We’re just seeing the arm go up and our job is just to keep turning up. To start the game we had no clue what the six agains were for. We had 12 or 14 tackles in a row to start the game and had no idea what we were doing wrong.”

The NRL announced off-season changes to the six again rule – including for certain infringements beyond the 20-metre line and tackle count restarts, replacing the previous 40-metre threshold. The changes are aimed at encouraging more time with the ball in play, reducing stoppages from full penalties.

However, NRL players, officials and fans have growing increasingly frustrated at the changes, which contributed to the highest average winning margin in 25 years across the round one results.

There was an average of eight restarts and 11.5 penalties per game in the opening round specifically, with a 35 per cent increase of six-agains in 2026 compared to 2025.

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According to Payten, if the referee isn’t prepared to blow a full-blown penalty, it shouldn’t be deemed a ruck infringement.

“I like the way the game was refereed in Vegas, it was a bit different to this game today. But it’s bringing fatigue into the game and the game is fast enough,” Payten said.

“The referees are just more willing to blow those ruck infringements. You’re not really sure what they’re for.

“I would prefer that if it’s not a full-blown penalty, don’t give it a ruck infringement. But we’ve opened it up and this is the game and we’ve got to move forward and handle ourselves better.”

Dearden added that officials did provide some clarity around the Cowboys’ early misdemeanours, but in the heat of battle he had little information to share with this players.

“Once we got a break in play, I spoke to the ref and he said that it was a mix of everything: we were getting a lot wrong with the ruck and then inside the 10 as well. It was a mix of everything,” he said.

“Our job is to take it back and give that message to the team and clean it up. In play, it’s frustrating to not know what they’re for and how to fix it up.”

The Cowboys coach had few answers after his side’s 44-16 loss against an impressive Wests Tigers in front of a surging crowd at Leichardt Oval.

The Wests Tigers ran amok against the Cowboys defence at times, managing 21 offloads and eight line breaks en route to their convincing eight tries-to-three demolition. Jarome Luai was instrumental in setting up the victory, with three try assists.

The patchy performance compounded North Queensland’s 28-18 loss against Newcastle in the Las Vegas season-opener two weeks earlier.

Payten conceded the Cowboys would retreat to North Queensland licking their wounds this week, but vowed for the side to fight back.

“It’s really important,” Payten said of the Cowboys’ turning their season around.

“It will be good to get around our families and focus on our prep. We’ve got a couple of big weeks.

“It’s important that we train to win this week and then get our physical state right and mentally, be ready to go.”

The Cowboys’ performance was riddled with errors against an impressive Wests Tigers outfit. North Queensland amassed 46 missed tackles, six penalties and 13 errors against Benji Marshall’s men, who were brilliantly led by resurgent playmaker Luai.

The visitors were under the pump early on, with those aforementioned set restarts along with a sin bin to lock Kai O’Donnell for repeated infringements – which Payten said he would seek clarity on.

Rather than point the finger at a Las Vegas hangover, Payten said the Cowboys’ shortcoming was much more tangible.

“Our starts need to change,” he said.

“We started on the back foot with the [Kai O’Donnell] sin binning and some fatigue. Every time we got the smallest amount of momentum – whether that was one or two plays or one or two sets, we’d come up with an error and that just compounded everything.

“We started the second half well and got back to a competitive position but in the end the Tigers were far too good.

“Everyone has got to look at their own performance here, there is some fundamental stuff which really hurts. But also with momentum and ruck infringements, it’s really hard to get yourself back in the game. We fought hard but the Tigers were way too good.”