The Cowboys’ Rapid Rise Up the NRL Ladder

Last year, the Cowboys won just seven games and ended the season in 15^th place. That followed on from three consecutive seasons prior in which they failed to finish higher than 13^th, or win more than nine games. In 2021, they had a new coach at the helm in Todd Payten, but as is always the case with new coaches, questions abounded about his suitability for the position – something which continual disappointing results only served to compound.

Entering this year, not a whole lot was expected to change. After all, they’d endured four consecutive seasons with less than ten wins and they haven’t exactly been trending upwards over that period of time. They entered the season with only the Wests Tigers at shorter odds with most bookmakers to win the Wooden Spoon, including those betting sites offering free bets, and many respected voices had little faith in their ability to improve in 2022. But while transmission has begun as expected for the Tigers, the Cowboys have started the season in a way that few would have predicted.

Well, at least since Round 2 they have. The Cowboys opening round clash with the Bulldogs was a bit of a snore-fest and wouldn’t exactly have inspired a great deal of confidence in fans, with a 6-4 defeat at the hands of last year’s Wooden Spooners far from an optimal start to the year. If anything, that game probably served to encourage the critics, but if the negativity surrounding them got louder after Round 1, the Cowboys have well and truly silenced it in the ensuing couple of weeks. Up against a Raiders side with top eight aspirations in Round 2 they put on a clinic in the second half, managing three converted tries in the space of 18 minutes to race away to a 26-6 win. As if to prove it wasn’t a fluke, they won in even more dominant fashion against the Broncos next week, with three more converted tries at almost the exact same period of the second half as the week prior helping them to a 38-12 demolition.

Of course, the season is still young, and the Cowboys wouldn’t exactly be the first team to start the year on a bit of a high only to see it all come crumbling down over the rest of the season. Regardless, what they have done is given fans plenty of cause of optimism, and demonstrated that at their best they are more than capable of playing a high-scoring, entertaining brand of footy, and matching it with teams previously perceived as far better than them.

So what’s been the catalyst for their apparent ascent? Of course, as with any form turnaround, there are numerous factors at play, but a couple in particular are worth expanding on. The first is the coach. Coming to the club in 2021, Payten thought the Cowboys needed a ‘complete overhaul’, but after failing to get the results he or the club wanted in his first year there were plenty lining up to criticise his methods. Instead of going back on his beliefs and trying to snaffle a few wins to keep the critics off his back, however, he stuck to his guns, implementing change at a physical, level and cultural level at the club. A huge preseason was a significant part of that; an attempt to develop an element of toughness to a club at which it had been so evidently absent in recent years.

Another part of this process for the Cowboys was the $2.4 million acquisition of Chad Townsend, a Premiership winner with the Sharks and someone who has played close to 200 games in the NRL. Though at 31 years of age he might not be an immediately obvious fit for a young side with a long way to go until they are genuine challengers for a Premiership, his presence has evidently had a significant impact on the team. With so much experience in big games, Townsend has a composure about him on the field which many young players lack, and that sense of calm is contagious. At the same time, he has paired up with talented young half Tom Dearden, who will be able to feed off his wealth of experience and knowledge.

After winning the Premiership in thrilling fashion in 2015, the Cowboys began a steady descent down the ladder to the point where, over the past few years, they have been a virtual lock at the beginning of each season to end up on a low rung. In 2022, however, it appears that things are finally beginning to change. Coach Todd Payten and the procurement of Chad Townsend are a couple of significant reasons why, but rather than doing anything remarkable from an individual perspective, they’ve simply contributed to the extraction of the talent which already existed on the Cowboys’ list. Regardless of the reasons though, one thing is for sure. They still have a long way to go and plenty to prove, but no longer are the Cowboys the easy beat that they have been for so many years.