North Queensland Cowboys shape as hottest team heading into finals

COACH Neil Henry believes the confidence in his North Queensland outfit is comparable with the Cowboys' title charge last year.

COACH Neil Henry believes the confidence in his North Queensland outfit is comparable with their title charge last year as the Cowboys attempt to enter the finals as the hottest team in the NRL.

If Henry’s men can secure a sixth-straight win at home to the Wests Tigers on Saturday night they would enter the finals with the best winning streak in the top eight.

The Cowboys' run since the Origin series actually ranks second to Manly in the entire NRL competition and North Queensland’s defence has been the strongest in the league for the past four weeks, conceding just nine points a game.

“Last year we had good momentum into the finals after Origin and we’ve been able to do that again and get through reasonably healthy,” Henry said.

“There is certainly confidence and there is confidence on the back of working hard but also with the realisation that we still need to be on top of things and still need to look to improve.”

With prop Matt Scott a chance to return from a broken finger for week one of the finals, Henry believes his squad can still cause a major shake in 2013.

While the Cowboys surged into title reckoning in 2012 from fifth on the ladder, it could be argued they would enter the 2013 finals series in an equally strong position despite finishing seventh or eighth.

They might not have a home final in week one, but they're far less travel fatigued with only two away games in the past seven weeks this season as opposed to four in 2012.

Defensively the Cowboys have conceded just 11 points a game in their six games since Origin, while scoring at 26.8 points a game.

They’ve had better wins, stronger defence and have zero expectation.

Henry always believed this form surge could come, it’s part of the reason why he didn’t immediately walk away when told his services were not required for 2014 six weeks ago.

“I certainly thought the team could turn it around because we’d been so close on so many occasions,” Henry said.

“Our effort has been there but our execution has been poor.

“We have always been willing to defend. We’ve been in the top six defensive sides all year.

“We haven’t changed our attack structures, we haven’t changed what we’re doing in defence, we’re still running the same plays, we’re just playing with confidence and working a bit harder in defence for each other. The attitude is really there to get in games and win games because we’ve had to do it.”

Victory over the Tigers would be the second longest winning streak in club history, just one shy of the record set in 2007.

At the moment the club has five wins, they would need 10 to claim the premiership.

“That’s where we are isn’t it. Halfway, it’s a long way to go,” Henry said.

“We’ve been on a sudden death run for five weeks now and we just need to extend it to six.”