LAST WEEK I wrote about how the Brisbane Broncos were both the Cowboys' great rival and bogey team. No matter what the form guide said, the best the Cowboys could do until September 2004 was steal a draw against their city cousins.
The Canberra Raiders don't really have a great rival. Back in the early 1990's you could argue their great rival was the Broncos on account of at least one of the two winning all bar one premiership between 1989 and 1994, but since then continued mediocrity (occasional inspiration in 2003 and 2010 notwithstanding) and a lack of local derbies means there's no one that could really be termed great rivals as such.
What they do have however is a bogey team - the Cowboys.
It's partially the results: Canberra have won just three of their last 10 matches against the Cowboys with none in Townsville since 2006. It's a welcome change for Cowboys' fans who are still 11-18 against the Green Machine, but not the reason for bogey team status.
Nope, the reason the Cowboys are Canberra's bogey team is the injury list.
Consider this: the last two matches the teams played Canberra didn't finish with a full bench. At Canberra Stadium in 2011 the Raiders led 22-0 in the first half before injuries to Josh Dugan and Terry Campese - playing his one and only game for the season - left the Raiders two short and eventually over-run 24-40.
Earlier this year it happened again: this time forwards Brett White and Joel Thompson went off injured as the Cowboys managed a 22-6 win, again at Canberra Stadium.
So surely third time lucky for the Raiders?
Nope.
Joel Thompson again failed to finish a match against the Cowboys with a broken knuckle; Trevor Thurling sustained a shoulder injury; while star back Dugan suffered a suspected broken ankle late in the match.
For the Cowboys it was a solid win after co-captain Matthew Scott pulled out following his mother's passing earlier in the week. Stories of Diane Scott driving up to eight hours return for junior matches from the remote town of Ilfracombe showed exactly why the NRL chose to have a round celebrating Women in League.
Cowboys veteran Matty Bowen furthered his State of Origin claims with another strong performance; not scoring any tries himself but throwing the last pass in four of his team's seven tries. Back in 2005 much of the excitement around the Cowboys came from his combination with Johnathon Thurston; this year they're back better than ever causing havoc around the edge of the ruck.
Unfortunately for the Raiders the Cowboys seem to do more to them than just cause havoc around the ruck. This keeps up everyone's going to be wanting to play Canberra straight after a Cowboys game.
NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS 40 (Hall 2, Graham, Winterstein, Thompson, Linnett, Bolton tries; Thurston 5/06, Bowen 1/1 goals) defeated Canberra Raiders 18.
Sunday 24 June 2012
Sunday 17 June 2012
Supporting North Queensland: Round 15
HISTORICALLY every sporting club ever has but one thing: a great rival. Think Lakers/Celtics, Manchesters United/City, everyone else/Collingwood.
Often clubs will have their own personal bogey as well. For years it was the aforementioned Collingwood and their "Colliwobbles" in grand finals; the Socceroos in the final match of World Cup qualifying; while Major League Baseball teams do well with various curses (Curse of the Bambino, Curse of the Billy Goat).
For the North Queensland Cowboys our great rival and bogey team are one and the same: the Brisbane Broncos. The Broncos had already won two premierships in just seven seasons when the Cowboys joined the competition in 1995; since then they've added another four (making it 6 wins from 6 grand finals), as well as apparently being the most successful rugby club of all time, winning 63% of their matches. Their Wikipedia entry also lists Queensland's crème de la crème as celebrity fans: former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd; former Test cricket captain Allan Border; reigning US Tennis Open champion Samantha Stosur; the late Steve Irwin.
Compare this to the Cowboys. Their win rate is just over half Brisbane's at 37%; they've made exactly one grand final for one loss; try Googling a list of celebrity fans and you'll get everything but. Apparently Townsville-born cricketer Mitchell Johnson is a fan - and I find it only appropriate Australia's most mercurial cricketer follows rugby league's most mercurial team.
Then there's the Cowboys' poor record against the Broncos. Since 1995 they've won a grand total of six games against their Queensland rivals, drawn twice - and lost 24 times. In Townsville the record's even worse: two wins, one draw and 14 losses.
That first win in Townsville was memorable though. The Cowboys had managed to put years of underachievement behind them to make the 2004 finals before stunning eventual premiers Canterbury 30-22 in the third qualifying final. This set up a semi-final against the Broncos, who graciously allowed the match to be moved up to Townsville. Watching the match with Cooma's only other Cowboys fan (who happened to live in the flat above me), we couldn't quite believe it as they not only recorded their first-ever win against the Broncos, but also held them to the grand total of zero points. I don't recall the second Townsville win (26-10 in July 2006) for the very good reason that I was working my way around Europe and not always able to keep up with events back home.
This time around I couldn't watch most of the game on account of an indoor soccer match that started the same time as kick-off in Townsville. Not that it mattered - easing myself into the car after yet another back injury I turned on the radio to find the half-time score was 0-0. What I would have given to swap that half-time score with our 6-2, but c'est la vie unfortunately.
Racing into work to catch a rockabilly band I couldn't believe that wave after wave of attacks were being repulsed by both teams. After a quick change I headed into the bar just in time to see Gavin Cooper stroll over the line after yet another break from Matty Bowen. Bowen then helped seal the win, holding the pass just long enough to draw the defender in and send Kane Linnett over.
So a 12-0 win to the good guys and a few new records. This was the Cowboys third win at home against the Broncos; only the second time they'd ever won both matches against Brisbane in a season (previously done in 2006); and most astonishingly, they became the first team to ever hold the Broncos to nil twice.
Beating the great rival/bogey team and setting a few new records along the way? Suits me.
NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS 12 (Cooper, Linnett tries; Thurston 2/2 goals) defeated Brisbane Broncos 0.
Often clubs will have their own personal bogey as well. For years it was the aforementioned Collingwood and their "Colliwobbles" in grand finals; the Socceroos in the final match of World Cup qualifying; while Major League Baseball teams do well with various curses (Curse of the Bambino, Curse of the Billy Goat).
For the North Queensland Cowboys our great rival and bogey team are one and the same: the Brisbane Broncos. The Broncos had already won two premierships in just seven seasons when the Cowboys joined the competition in 1995; since then they've added another four (making it 6 wins from 6 grand finals), as well as apparently being the most successful rugby club of all time, winning 63% of their matches. Their Wikipedia entry also lists Queensland's crème de la crème as celebrity fans: former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd; former Test cricket captain Allan Border; reigning US Tennis Open champion Samantha Stosur; the late Steve Irwin.
Compare this to the Cowboys. Their win rate is just over half Brisbane's at 37%; they've made exactly one grand final for one loss; try Googling a list of celebrity fans and you'll get everything but. Apparently Townsville-born cricketer Mitchell Johnson is a fan - and I find it only appropriate Australia's most mercurial cricketer follows rugby league's most mercurial team.
Then there's the Cowboys' poor record against the Broncos. Since 1995 they've won a grand total of six games against their Queensland rivals, drawn twice - and lost 24 times. In Townsville the record's even worse: two wins, one draw and 14 losses.
That first win in Townsville was memorable though. The Cowboys had managed to put years of underachievement behind them to make the 2004 finals before stunning eventual premiers Canterbury 30-22 in the third qualifying final. This set up a semi-final against the Broncos, who graciously allowed the match to be moved up to Townsville. Watching the match with Cooma's only other Cowboys fan (who happened to live in the flat above me), we couldn't quite believe it as they not only recorded their first-ever win against the Broncos, but also held them to the grand total of zero points. I don't recall the second Townsville win (26-10 in July 2006) for the very good reason that I was working my way around Europe and not always able to keep up with events back home.
This time around I couldn't watch most of the game on account of an indoor soccer match that started the same time as kick-off in Townsville. Not that it mattered - easing myself into the car after yet another back injury I turned on the radio to find the half-time score was 0-0. What I would have given to swap that half-time score with our 6-2, but c'est la vie unfortunately.
Racing into work to catch a rockabilly band I couldn't believe that wave after wave of attacks were being repulsed by both teams. After a quick change I headed into the bar just in time to see Gavin Cooper stroll over the line after yet another break from Matty Bowen. Bowen then helped seal the win, holding the pass just long enough to draw the defender in and send Kane Linnett over.
So a 12-0 win to the good guys and a few new records. This was the Cowboys third win at home against the Broncos; only the second time they'd ever won both matches against Brisbane in a season (previously done in 2006); and most astonishingly, they became the first team to ever hold the Broncos to nil twice.
Beating the great rival/bogey team and setting a few new records along the way? Suits me.
NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS 12 (Cooper, Linnett tries; Thurston 2/2 goals) defeated Brisbane Broncos 0.
Sunday 3 June 2012
Supporting North Queensland: Round 13
FUNNY thing happened Friday night.
Ended up at the pub when supposed to be elsewhere - but that wasn't it. Found out a mate of mine knew one of the bouncers from work - but that wasn't it either.
What was funny was watching a street magician work his magic. This was part of the reason I'd ended up staying in the pub; it was a photo finish as to whether James' hands or mouth worked quicker. He even took some time to show us how his card tricks worked, which was pretty cool.
What it also did was distract me from the magic trick happening on the tv. Every time I looked up at the North Queensland vs Gold Coast match the Cowboys were on the attack, and every time they'd managed to score a grand total of 0 points. The only exception to this rule was when I looked up to find the coverage had flicked to a commercial break to return to the inevitable shot of a Titans' player taking a sip from a water bottle after having scored.
The halftime stats were ridiculous as well. The Cowboys had missed less tackles, made more line breaks, held more possession and been tackled in the opposition's 20m something like 22 times to the Titans' two, yet were somehow 12-0 down.
It all continued in the second half with the Cowboys held scoreless until the 70th minute, meaning the Gold Coast had held the Cowboys scoreless for 150 minutes this year. Another try soon followed, but it was too little too late as they went down to their second consecutive loss.
That was some magic trick from the Titans.
NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS 12 (Paterson, Thurston tries; Thurston 2/2 goals) lost to Gold Coast Titans 28
Ended up at the pub when supposed to be elsewhere - but that wasn't it. Found out a mate of mine knew one of the bouncers from work - but that wasn't it either.
What was funny was watching a street magician work his magic. This was part of the reason I'd ended up staying in the pub; it was a photo finish as to whether James' hands or mouth worked quicker. He even took some time to show us how his card tricks worked, which was pretty cool.
What it also did was distract me from the magic trick happening on the tv. Every time I looked up at the North Queensland vs Gold Coast match the Cowboys were on the attack, and every time they'd managed to score a grand total of 0 points. The only exception to this rule was when I looked up to find the coverage had flicked to a commercial break to return to the inevitable shot of a Titans' player taking a sip from a water bottle after having scored.
The halftime stats were ridiculous as well. The Cowboys had missed less tackles, made more line breaks, held more possession and been tackled in the opposition's 20m something like 22 times to the Titans' two, yet were somehow 12-0 down.
It all continued in the second half with the Cowboys held scoreless until the 70th minute, meaning the Gold Coast had held the Cowboys scoreless for 150 minutes this year. Another try soon followed, but it was too little too late as they went down to their second consecutive loss.
That was some magic trick from the Titans.
NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS 12 (Paterson, Thurston tries; Thurston 2/2 goals) lost to Gold Coast Titans 28
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