NRL 2020: Bulldogs v Cowboys, Green happy to play in empty stadium
Cowboys mentor Paul Green admits it will be strange on Thursday night playing without a crowd, but the premiership coach says there’s one thing he is looking forward to.
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THE days of one-eyed fans yelling “get em onside!” are over and Cowboys coach Paul Green reckons the NRL’s stadium lockout will ease the strain of home-town crowds influencing referees.
The Cowboys and Bulldogs will become the first teams to play in an empty stadium following the NRL’s coronavirus crowd ban when they clash at ANZ Stadium on Thursday.
It will be a bizarre feeling for the players when they run out to silence at the 83,500-seat Olympics venue.
But it’s something they will have to get used to, with the possibility the entire NRL season could be played without any fans in the stands.
In an incredibly even competition, the teams that adjust best to the unique circumstances could go a long way to winning games and staying in the premiership hunt.
Green said the Cowboys hadn’t discussed the crowd absence in depth, but admitted it was one less distraction for the players and officials.
“We haven’t had too much of a discussion around it, it will be different and a little bit weird,” he said.
“It’s one less distraction which can sometimes be a good thing.
“Sometimes you get the feeling some refs can be a little bit swayed by home crowds at different times, particularly at some of those smaller grounds or a big stadium that’s full.
“That won’t be the case for us. It might be easier for the refs to at least ref.
“For our guys it will hopefully make it easier to concentrate because you won’t have the distraction of crowd and noise.
“No one really knows until we go through it. We’re getting our heads around it.”
Aside from the return of Test forward Josh McGuire from suspension, Green has stayed loyal to the Cowboys team that was disappointing in a 28-21 loss to the Broncos last Friday night in Townsville.
The Cowboys missed 44 tackles against the Broncos and if not for two late tries, the margin would have been much greater in their historic first match at the new Queensland Country Bank Stadium.
“I think that number can be a little bit deceiving, we missed some poor tackles but they were in chunks of the game,” Green said.
“If you look at that and think ‘gee, they were poor across the game’ it wasn’t really the case.
“When we were bad we were really bad. Two of those tries probably accounted for a third of those missed tackles.
“It’s not just individual tackling. It’s a little bit of concentration and staying in the moment.
“There’s no doubt we have to fix it up. We want to be a good defensive team and this is our opportunity to do that.”
The Cowboys will fly to Sydney on Thursday on a private jet and return to Townsville immediately after the game to minimise their contact with the public.
The Cowboys are due to host Parramatta in Townsville on Saturday week if the NRL progresses to Round 3 amid the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Originally published as NRL 2020: Bulldogs v Cowboys, Green happy to play in empty stadium