Chad Townsend’s Talk of the Town Column: How Cowboys exposed rookie Dolphins winger Jack Bostock
In his exclcusive weekly column, Cowboys halfback Chad Townsend revealed how a key defensive habit of a rookie Dolphin lit the fuse on an attacking masterclass on fifth-and-last tackle.
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Welcome back to my column for season 2024.
My name is Chad Townsend, halfback for the North Queensland Cowboys, and every Wednesday I have the pleasure of writing a column for the Townsville Bulletin where I give my take on all things NRL.
In today’s column I will be analysing our Round 1 game which saw us win convincingly against the Dolphins at Suncorp Stadium.
Being the first game of the season the boys were itching to get back out there and start playing games.
Our pre-season was extremely tough and long but it enabled us to get plenty of practice and work on our game and the areas in which we identified that we needed to improve on for this season.
Throughout the week we spoke about a few habits the Dolphins have defensively, which included their left winger Jack Bostock dropping back deep and early before last tackle.
We identified this as an area in which we could exploit with a run on last play down our right side which we executed to perfection.
As the ball came to me I heard the call from out wide that the “winger’s back.”
This enabled me to tip the ball on to Jeremiah Nanai who then passed it on to Zac Laybutt who with some incredible skill and athleticism was able to find his way to the tryline.
Zac was also heavily involved in another try and played one of the best games of his short career thus far.
He has earned his spot in our team through hard work and consistency and I’m really looking forward to watching him grow and evolve his game this season.
We would go on to convincingly win the game against the Dolphins through discipline and hard work.
We worked hard on our transitions from attack to defence which allowed us to tire out the Dolphins’ big forward pack and create some space for our outside backs.
There were a few other notable mentions throughout our game including Nanai, Reece Robson and Jordan McClean who all had solid performances.
We now head back home for our first home game of the season against a Knights team coming off a Round 1 loss to the Raiders.
We know they will be desperate and we have to ensure we are prepared and focused to go out there and perform again.
It’s a long season so getting off to a good start is imperative.
The boys cannot wait to see all of our members and fans there at a packed out QCB stadium this weekend.
The footy’s back! How good is that.
See you at the game. Chad
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Originally published as Chad Townsend’s Talk of the Town Column: How Cowboys exposed rookie Dolphins winger Jack Bostock
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