Crash Tackle: Heat rising for Paul Green and struggling Cowboys

They normally fly under the radar but the spotlight is starting to turn on Paul Green and struggling North Queensland. Plus, did the Broncos let another gun get away?

The heat is rising on Cowboys coach Paul Green. Picture: Alix Sweeney

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Each week, The Courier-Mail’s chief sportswriter Robert Craddock looks at the big talking points coming out of the NRL.

OFFSIDE

FEELING THE HEAT

Because they are so far away from the rest of the competition the North Queensland Cowboys don’t get the blow torch treatment given to clubs closer to the heart of the NRL’s flaming furnace.

But the heat is rising, suddenly and steadily on coach Paul Green and his men after two bottom four seasons in succession and giving up seven tries to the Warriors on the weekend with a roster which had some pundits tipping them to finish top four this season.

It’s time to get moving …

Coach Paul Green is starting to feel the heat. Picture: Alix Sweeney

LAST RESORT

Issac Luke may give the Broncos a pulse but he is not going to give them a soul.

Brisbane’s last two signings – Luke and Ben Te’o – have a combined age of 66 and are the epitome of journeymen nearing the end of their honorable careers, peaking as they did together in South Sydney’s premiership year of 2014.

They have been fine players but Broncos contracts used to be among the prized in the league, not ones you got when you were a hop, skip and a jump from retirement. That Luke should be recruited weeks after the tireless Andrew McCullough was let go is most confusing.

GET SMART

Operation Payback starts this week for reckless Bronco Tevita Pangai Jr who must find a way to refine his ham-fisted aggression.

Claims that Pangai does not have to change his game don’t gel with the messages left by his sorrowful judiciary record which includes three suspensions last season, missing eight weeks, and a crucial four-match ban this year before his return against Newcastle this week.

Pangai has let the club down in a vulnerable development period and so bad is his record that anything more sinister than a mild sneeze will have him in trouble again.

Tevita Pangai Junior owes the Broncos. Picture: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

PLANE SENSE?

The NRL should acquaint itself with the words of the world’s most famous private investor, Warren Buffett, before it proceeds with a plan to buy a private plane.

Buffett once quipped the pioneering Wright brothers would have saved investors trillions had they been shot out of the sky when they made history’s first flight.

Years later, when he finally bought his own plane, Buffett poked fun at himself by calling it The Indefensible.

LEAGUE RULES OK

If there is such a thing as the Battle of the Rules changes then rugby league appears set to outpoint its professional rival, rugby union.

League’s move to one referee and its vibrant “six more tackles’’ rule have quickened the game this season and while union has announced a raft of changes for a revamped Australian Super Rugby competition there is nothing in the new rules to suggest the game is going to significantly speed up.

Sigh. 

ONSIDE

WARRIOR SPIRIT

Did the Broncos pull the pin too early on Kodi Nikorima?

The discarded playmaker had the best game of his career for the Warriors in their win over the Cowboys.

At age 26 he appears to be reaching his potential.

Kodi Nikorima starred for the Warriors in their win over the Cowboys. Picture: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

GOT YOU COVID

Rugby league has done well to plough through the COVID era like a bulldozer through a forest and it hasn’t always been a smooth journey.

But the NRL deserves credit for the slick, nimble footwork they displayed in juggling their schedule to postpone the Bulldogs-Roosters match to Monday night after the virus scare involving Aiden Tolman.

What would normally have been an impossible thought became reality in a couple of hours.

STEADY EDDIE

The whispers that former Wallaby now England rugby union coach Eddie Jones is interested in coaching either the Sharks or the Rabbitohs are hopefully true.

Say what you like about Jones being a hard-arsed so and so but he’s also clever, controversial, innovative and a master planner. Success or failure, the competition would be much richer for his presence.

Xavier Coates flies high for the Broncos. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

THE HIGH FLYER

Xavier Coates is the sort of player who makes children take up rugby league.

Watching him soar through the air like Superman without a cape is going to be an eternal highlight for Broncos fans.

The question after his high-leaping heroics against Manly is what teams will do to try and stop him. Watch out for the stationary “human shield’’ in front of Coates’ rival winger for the Knights.

GOOD SAMARITAN

How lucky are the Gold Coast Titans to have a part-owner like Darryl Kelly?

Kelly’s decision to part with some of his property portfolio to give the club a $25 million loan which probably won’t be paid back in his life time was a gesture of extreme generosity. If they ever win the title the Titans should find a way of sneaking him onto the podium.