An Almighty NRL Finals Week Two Preview - Cowboys vs Sharks
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Cowboys vs Sharks
Just as the Roosters should be favourites against the Doggies in the first of the weekend's games, the Cowboys should have the muscle and class to send the Sharks back to Sydney for Mad Monday. Really though, any team who has played the Sharks in the last month and a half has been in a similar position that the Cowboys now find themselves in, yet here the Sharks are in week two of the NRL Finals.
The Cowboys are a team built on star-power. Sure, they have quality NRL players like Gavin Cooper and Lachlan Coote who are slicker than your average NRL joker but without representative players Jonathan Thurston, James Tamou, Matt Scott, Michael Morgan and Jason Taumalolo, the Cowboys wouldn't be anywhere near the Finals.
The Sharks on the other hand are a team of solid NRL players who have all bought into a game plan. They'll go set for set with any NRL team as they happily encourage opponents to try work as hard as them and then have quality players executing their jobs to near perfection.
Whether the Sharks have the defensive ability of the Broncos is the question though. Last week we saw the Broncos defend their line like there was a secret stash of peptide (/drug of choice) behind their posts. That was despite the Cowboys throwing their full bag of tricks at the Broncos and the Cowboys have quite a large bag of tricks given they have Thruston, Morgan and Coote leading their attack. The Sharks are a good defensive side, but they will need to be able to defend back to back sets on their try-line as well as not allowing the Cowboys to roll easily down the field - easier said than done when you have a Tamou, Scott, Jason Taumalolo and Ben Hannant taking hit ups.
Also, last week we also saw a Jonathan Thurston who was slightly off his game, in combination with a great Broncos defence. Thurston's a great and players of that calibre rarely string poor games together.
Luke Lewis and Wade Graham sum up the Sharks for me. Despite oozing class, neither played State Of Origin this year with Lewis deemed too old while Graham's still working his way into that conversation. If you are looking for the perfect edge back-row combination, then this is it. Both Lewis and Graham are the perfect edge forwards as they can move like a centre but obviously have the size and intent of a forward ... while also having the skills of a half having both played in the halves. As I've said all season, Graham also has a left-boot that is crucial to the Sharks and their kicking game - perfection.
This sets up an interesting match up against Ethan Lowe and Gavin Cooper. These two lads are different to Graham and Lewis in that they earn a living running into holes and don't have to worry about slick passes, footwork and kicks because there's two Queensland players in the halves. Cooper and Lowe are clones of each in that they are both tall and relatively lean, which will make this match up one to enjoy as both sets of edge forwards will need to limit their opposite's impact.
There's match ups all across the park really.
Whether it's Taumalolo and Paul Gallen at lock, who are both crucial to their team's go forward.
Or Michael Morgan and Jack Bird, two young halves who love to run the footy and both run their right edges.
Jake Granville's running game from dummy half is a key factor in the Cowboys' success this season, while Michael Ennis has had is hands in everything for the Sharks.
Both the Cowboys and the Sharks also have solid outside back groups that don't quite get the recognition that they deserve. Valentine Holmes certainly does, but no one celebrates Sosaia Feki, Ricky Leutele or Gerard Beale who have all had good seasons. The same can be said about Kyle Feldt, Justin O'Neill, Kane Linett and Antonio Winterstein who are up there with the low key best outside back groups in the NRL. There might not be the household names, but we're going to be treated to two groups of outside backs who are very good at what they do.
Each team also has a trump card. The Cowboys have Thurston, he's their trump card because if he's at his wizard-like best then the Cowboys will win. The Sharks have Ben Barba, who isn't a trump card himself but the way he's used off the bench is the Sharks' trump card.
The Sharks have Barba, Holmes and Michael Gordon who have all chipped in at fullback this season. Last week Holmes was taken off after suffering a 'cork' while throughout the season we've seen Feki be taken off with Gordon moving to the wing and Barba coming on at fullback. Feki has shown that he's a gun though and I don't think he'd be taken off in a big game, so we could see a straight swap between Barba and Gordon or we might see Barba come on for a forward or just not come on at all. Barba's on the bench and only has to provide a few classy touches in the 10-20 minutes that he gets and the different ways he could be used will give the Cowboys plenty to think about.
This game's in Townsville, which obviously helps the Cowboys but I watched the Sharks come from behind and shock the Cowboys in Townsville this season. Despite that, I reckon that the Sharks won't be able to restrict the Cowboys to scoring less than 20 points like the Broncos did last week. The Sharks' win over the Cowboys showed how easy it can be to put points on the Cowboys who have served up a fragile defence throughout 2015.
I'm picking the Cowboys because I simply think that they are the better team, thanks partly to that Thurston fella. This is the sort of game that the Sharks love though and they could niggle, grind and scrap their way to a typical Sharks win.