Supporting North Queensland: Round 3

THEY grow a lot of bananas up north. You can't really see them from the road as much as the sugar cane, but rest assured the region has a lot of bananas.
Unfortunately with bananas you get a lot of banana skins - like the match against Parramatta. The Cowboys 1-1 after that last-gasp win against the Broncos, playing at home against a side chock full of talent but yet to win after their first two games. This is exactly the kind of game that Cowboys sides of yore would have slipped up on; if we are going to be genuine finals contenders this year (and there's absolutely no reason why we can't be) this is exactly the kind of banana skin we can't afford to slip up on.

I needn't have worried.

Surfacing after a late-afternoon nap and shower I logged on to find the Cowboys up by 6 after a try to captain Matthew Scott, followed soon afterwards by and Ashley Graham 4-pointer to give us a 10-0 lead. It's at this point that the limitations of following a game over the internet become apparent: you get to watch a whole bunch of lines and dots give you only a very basic idea of what's happening on the ground. At one point the Parramatta lines got close to the tryline; a minute later and the Cowboys down the other end of the field.
Come to think of it, the Cowboys were down towards the tryline more often than not. Jason Taumalolo scored himself then set Graham up for his second; soon afterwards a mate posted on Facebook that the Cowboys had found a new superstar.
By the time I was ready to head to the pub for a friend's 30th it was half-time, the Cowboys were leading 26-0 and any thoughts of banana skins were banished to the brain cells that would inevitably die as a result of celebrating a touch too hard.
I arrived at the pub in time to watch most of the second half, although there wasn't much need to keep a close eye on proceedings. Parramatta managed to get one back to open the second half's scoring, before three late tries took us to a 42-6 win and a nice platform to launch into the evening's festivities.

No banana skins here.

NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS 42 (Graham 3, Scott, Taumalolo, Bowen, Linnett, Cooper tries; Jonathan Thurston 5/8 goals) - Parramatta Eels 6