Michael Morgan wants North Queensland’s loss to Brisbane to be a wake up call

Cowboys skipper Michael Morgan admits his side was given a “wake up call” in their 29-10 defeat to the Broncos on Friday night.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 22: Jake Granville and Mitchell Dunn of the Cowboys look dejected after their team loses the round two NRL match between the Brisbane Broncos and the North Queensland Cowboys at Suncorp Stadium on March 22, 2019 in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

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Cowboys skipper Michael Morgan admits his side was given an early-season “wake up call” after they were brought back to earth by the Brisbane Broncos on Friday night.

Expectations were high for North Queensland after their dominant Round 1 win over the Dragons in Townsville.

Instead, a fired up Brisbane side, led by a rampaging Tevita Pangai Jr, stunned the Cowboys 29-10 in front of 45,023 fans at Suncorp Stadium.

Brisbane trampled over North Queensland. Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images.

Morgan said the disappointing loss was a lesson for his side to not get complacent each week.

“We got a bit of a wake up call I think,” he said.

“It’s just that week to week grind of getting back into it and being up for the game each week. We spoke about doing it this week and we didn’t act on it so like I said, it was a good lesson for us.

“I was pretty disappointed in my own performance.

“We never really got into our groove. I think when they put us under pressure, we folded a little bit. It’s probably a 180 from last week. Last week I thought we handled those situations really well and we didn’t do it on Friday night.”

The Cowboys suffered their biggest defeat to Brisbane since 2015. Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images.

North Queensland was forced to reshuffle their pack in the second half following the loss of forward Jason Taumalolo (knee), winger Nene Macdonald and utility John Asiata (concussions).

At one stage, veteran prop Matt Scott was the only Cowboy available on the bench.

Morgan admitted the loss of some of key players rattled their game plan as they tried to overcome a 10-0 deficit at halftime.

“It was a big loss to lose Jase (Taumalolo) but not only him, we lost both wingers as well which threw us out a little bit,” he said.

“It’s disappointing just the way we let them frustrate us.”

The Cowboys now head back to Townsville to host Cronulla for their Round 3 clash on Saturday night.