Good morning everyone, and welcome to game day.

In what I hope will be a weekly segment, I am going to review the opposition forums and report back with a view of the mood, the concerns, the outlook and hopefully humour from the fans of the team we are against each week.

This week, I spent some time on the Cowboys forum, www.cowboysstampede.com.au. Have to say first impressions – the site has low interaction, slow pace and really the commentary was very boring. Expected much more from the Premiers and a team with pretty passionate and loyal supporters. I also checked League Unlimited and it looked like the Cowboys section hadn’t been added to in quite some time. Perhaps they have only just found the internet, or electricity in far North Queensland. Nothing like 1EE or the quality that we give you here at TCT from the Cowgirls!!

On to some quotes from the last few days –

• ‘We will target the Eels right edge after being average last week. Watch for Thurston, Coote, Cooper and Linnett set plays’.
• ‘Glanville did too much defence last week and was therefore limited in attack’.
• ‘This game should be easier than last week against Cronulla, although it is away’.
• ‘The salary cap issues will effect the team’
• ‘Our forwards better aim up and protect JT against ‘princess’ Scott’.
• ‘Wright is on standby for Winterstein who was heavily concussed last week’.

In some other Cowboys news

Gideon Gela-Mosby may have been North Queensland’s star at the Auckland Nines but he remains a long way from cracking the NRL after being dropped from the Cowboys’ under-20 side for disciplinary reasons. Gela-Mosby missed a recovery session after last Saturday’s loss to Cronulla and could be relegated to Townsville’s local league competition as punishment.

Finally some North Queensland humour making its way onto the pages

• ‘Cant wait for someone in the Sydney press to say the Cowboys haven’t won in Sydney since October 2015’.
• ‘I still think of the 2005 preliminary, and how Eels fans were already talking about winning the premiership, and then we destroyed them. That was even better than Paul Carige’s choke versus Canterbury’. (have to admit, I was one of those Eels fans, particularly when the Tigers won the day before – Chris)
• ‘I remember that afternoon soooooo well and to this day, I still ****stir Eels supporters about this and the fact that they haven’t left Townsville with the 2 points since 2000 haha’.
• ‘A stat I find interesting on NRL.com for next week. Cows and Eels have played 31 times with 15 wins each and one draw; so a win here would put us ahead in the overall head-to-head against the club. Given the struggles we faced in the first decade of the comp, milestones like this really please me and make me think back and appreciate how hard it was in the beginning. There aren’t too many clubs in the league that we have an overall winning record against; but I have a feeling that this time next week, we will have another team over on the other side of the ledger (where they belong). We can also jump ahead on the overall head-to-head with wins against the Raiders and Titans this year (and a chance to pull even with the Tigers)’.
  ‘Ditto… they were comparing Tim Smith to Peter Sterling, and he just ended up bloody and bruised’…

So that is it. The Cowboys expect to win and hope to smash Beau Scott. I say they will be disappointed on both counts. Hope to have more fun next week on the Kennel.

Go the Eels !!!!

Chris.

If you liked this article, you might consider supporting The Cumberland Throw.