Mad scientists: Cowboys turn to NFL, Premier League models to ease Johnathan Thurston exit

FOR the first time in 14 years, the Cowboys enter a season without the magic of Johnathan Thurston, but club boss Peter Parr’s global research mission can ease the pain of the superstar’s exit.

The Cowboys will be without skipper Johnathan Thurston for the time in 14 season. Picture: Getty

THE Cowboys have investigated sports-science programs in the NFL and English Premier League in a bid to hit back as a premiership force next season.

Cowboys head of football Peter Parr has dismissed suggestions the retirement of the club’s greatest player, Johnathan Thurston, will trigger a worrying free fall for the 2015 premiers.

Rated premiership favourites last season after a grand final appearance in 2017, the Cowboys endured a spectacular collapse, avoiding the wooden spoon by just two wins as they crashed to 13th place.

Now the absence of Thurston, the playmaking wizard who engineered the club’s first title victory three years ago, will turn up the heat on North Queensland’s revamped 2019 roster.

The Cowboys will be without skipper Johnathan Thurston for the time in 14 season. Picture: Getty

The Cowboys have left no stone unturned in their quest for redemption, turning to the sporting models of American football’s Atlanta Falcons and English soccer clubs to rediscover their winning edge.

“We’ve been looking at setups at NFL clubs and English Premier League teams to look at the latest sports-science trends and structures of teams worldwide,” Parr said.

“We don’t have the resources of other NRL clubs, let alone clubs overseas, but we looked at best practice in world sport to see how we can tweak things in accordance with our budget.”

“We’ve addressed three key areas of our football business — the players, administration and high-performance — and tweaked each area to try and get better.

“We’ve made Paul Bowman the head of sports science and we’ve appointed Michael Dobbin from Fremantle Dockers in the AFL to oversee our strength and conditioning.

Former player Paul Bowman will head the club’s sports science program. Picture: Alix Sweeney

“It’s important we learn some lessons from 2018 but we also don’t want to throw out the things that have made us a successful club for a long time.

“We don’t have the resources of other NRL clubs, let alone clubs overseas, but we looked at best practice in world sport to see how we can tweak things in accordance with our budget.

“As a football club, you must keep evolving.

“We wanted to make some positive adjustments and I think we have.”

For the first time in 14 years, the Cowboys enter a season without the competitive brilliance of Thurston, but Parr is confident North Queensland can make the finals without the Maroons maestro in 2019.

Fitness guru Michael Dobbin (hat) during his time at Freo. Picture: Getty

“We won’t have ‘Jonno’ but making the finals again is a realistic objective,” he said.

“If you look at our season this year we had a number of close losses and injuries and that can be the difference between a good year and a poor year.

“We understand we have to get better but we think with a decent run of luck with injuries and some fresh faces like Ben Barba (St Helens recruit) and a fully fit Michael Morgan, we have a good season coming up.”

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