Cotter confident tide will turn for Cowboys

Cowboys forward Reuben Cotter believes his side aren't far off turning things around, despite slumping to their fifth loss of the season in Auckland on Saturday.

North Queensland suffered their third defeat on the trot in Round 7, going down 22-14 in a contest they dominated for large parts, and after finishing in third place last year they now find themselves 15th. 

But Cotter said while the club's form right now was "deflating", it will only take one good performance to get them back on track. 

"At any time you are only one win away from turning things around, and I reckon that’s all we need at the moment," Cotter told NRL.com. 

That one win will change everything. The belief is still there for sure, we just need to be smarter.

Reuben Cotter

"We have just got to stick together and focus on each game and getting better.

"The effort was there [against the Warriors] and I thought for most of that second half we had them and I was confident in the way the game was going."

Cotter added that a lack of discipline was holding the side back in 2023, with the Cowboys giving away the second-most penalties to date this season at an average of seven per game. 

"If it’s not the penalties one week it’s the errors. We haven’t had a complete performance yet. If we can get those things right we’ll be a lot better off," he said. 

"[Against the Warriors] we let ourselves down with a few offside penalties and some soft tries.

"We are the same team [as last season] but this is a different year and we have got to look at ourselves now, we have got to fix up a few things."

Meanwhile coach Todd Payten explained his decision to start 84kg utility Jake Granville at prop against the Warriors, while leaving specialist middles Jamayne Taunoa-Brown, Mitchell Dunn and Cotter on the bench. 

The Cowboys are currently without five frontline forwards, with Jordan McLean the only one with a chance to return for Saturday night's clash against the Knights.

"We pushed Rubes [Cotter] back to the bench to save us an interchange. Once he came on he was always going to finish the game," Payten said.