I used to enjoy watching the cowboys in the Thurston/Bowen era, then came Kyle Feldt and killed that.
Its not so much who is my second team as who dont I despise. The warriors are still good in that respect.
Yes, ok. I have no doubt that Luai, Douihe, TM, Bula, Turuva, Twal, most of the first 17 have plenty of individual self belief and pride, but if they dont believe in and trust each other and play as a team, they wont get far.
I agree its on the players, but a bunch of players operating independently or without trust is just a rabble. The coaching staff need to remind players of their earlier cohesion and rebuild trust or I dont think things will improve. As a side note, I wonder how much of this is down to Luau.
I honestly believe that we've mentally dropped the ball.
Flying high in the early season with the first 17, we coped with a few injury losses but when a big chunk of the firsts were sidelined and we relied on poor seconds replacements. The better players gave up the ghost, no longer trusting...
Thats why I call it the NRL random factor. No consistency in the NRL calls or management responses. Teams can do their best to win, but beware the NRL random factor.
NRL random factor strikes again.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-09/nrl-admits-bunker-error-in-state-of-origin/106894958
Glad they apologised, that makes me feel much better.