The return of John Asiata for his first game since round seven has given North Queensland a huge boost ahead of this Saturday's trip to Canberra.
Asiata's comeback couldn't come soon enough for the Cowboys, especially given that co-captain Matt Scott is still sidelined by an ongoing neck injury.
Asiata, 25, hasn't played since injuring his pec against the Titans in mid-April and coach Paul Green is looking forward to seeing his creative flare on show at GIO Stadium.
"It's been a big break for him, but he's probably come back a week or two early... it's a credit to him, he's worked pretty hard and he's done everything he can to get back on the paddock," Green said.
"I think we can probably do with a little bit of his creativity and it's good to have him back around the boys, he's a pretty positive sort of guy."
Unfortunately for Cowboys fans there seems to be no solid timeline on Scott's return, with his injury being monitored after every training session.
"It's a bit of a wait and see with the way Matt's injury is - it's just increase the training and see how it goes from there," Green said.
"It's a bit hard to put a definitive timeline on it, so we'll just continue along with aiming for him to get back on the paddock sooner rather than later. But you can't push it along any earlier than it will let you."
Th 2018 season has been a major disappointment for the Cowboys and Scott but the club is confident the 32-year-old will be able to take the field again.
"It's a medical issue and they're the guys that will be making the decisions about it but the information is that we can get it fixed or manage it along the way, so we'll see how he goes," Green said.
The Raiders will be high on confidence after last week's Belmore miracle but Green believes his side can take plenty out of their past few weeks of football.
"I think we can draw on our last six weeks of footy," Green said.
"While we've only had one win in that period I think we've played some really good footy against some really good teams and with a bit of luck some of the results could have easily gone the other way.
"We're not too far off so it's important we don't drop the bundle and make sure we're looking for improvement. If we can find just another little bit of improvement and stay in games for a little bit longer the results will be different."
