Round 1
Broncos 4 l. Cowboys 36

2006 NRL Telstra Premiership Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: Aus_NZ > National > First Grade Competition: NRL Telstra Premiership

Brisbane Broncos
Darius Boyd [WG] 4 Pts; 1t

North Queensland Cowboys
Johnathan Thurston [F8] 24 Pts; 3t, 6/7g
Matt Bowen [FB] 4 Pts; 1t
Matt Sing [WG] 4 Pts; 1t
Neil Sweeney [WG] 4 Pts; 1t



Cowboys reign supreme in Queensland
Sun March 12, 2006
North Queensland's dominance as the premier club north of Tweed Heads has continued today with an emphatic 36-4 victory against an ordinary, old and slow Brisbane outfit with five-eighth Johnathan Thurston scoring 24 points.

The Cowboys have finished higher in the Telstra Premiership than the Broncos in the last two years and on their performance today they are a great chance of making it three in a row against their former dominant brother.

It was a big day for Johnathan Thurston who completely outplayed Test captain Darren Lockyer in a haul of 24 points through three tries and six goals to confirm his status as one of the best players and five-eighth's in the game today. Thurston and Scott Prince are locked in a battle for the Queensland halfback position but on the form of both players they would both have to be in the side with Lockyer either at fullback but then comes the form of Matt Bowen and Billy Slater.

Lockyer is one of the finest fullbacks to play the game and in 2003 was ranked alongside Immortals Clive Churchill and Graeme Langlands but since switching to five-eighth in 2004 has been a complete shadow of himself and his star ranking is rapidly diminishing. The form of Thurston, Bowen, Prince and Slater should put them in the key 1, 6 and 7 positions ahead of Lockyer regardless of his reputation as a player and captain.

Brisbane's form today was a major worry as they've been traditionally fast starters out of the blocks and it's only scary to think what their form will be come after the State of Origin series. Although judging on today's effort, they should only get at the most two representatives if Mal Meninga in the Maroons selectors are fair dinkum.

North Queensland led 24-0 at halftime and their little men around the rucks simply blew the Broncos off the park with Thurston, Bowen and hooker Aaron Payne causing complete damage.

Matt Sing scored the first try when he came in-field looking for the ball and charged onto an inside pass from Brett Firman. Sing moved to 147 tries and is now equal with Bob Fulton with only Ken Irvine, Andrew Ettingshausen, Terry Lamb, Steve Menzies and Harold Horder ahead of him. It's been a remarkable effort by Sing to continually produce the goods year-in and year-out since starting off as a raw youngster with Penrith in 1994.

Other tries went to Bowen and two from Thurston to open up a 24-0 lead.

Neil Sweeney and a third try from Thurston took the Cowboys out to 36-0 with 20 minutes remaining but their football after that point became sloppy as they went away from the plan that took the Broncos to pieces.

Darius Boyd in his first grade debut scored for the Broncos to give them some points for the afternoon. Brisbane finished the match stronger but the damage had already been done in the opening 60 minutes.

North Queensland stumbled their way into the Preliminary Final last year but defeated a woeful Parramatta side 29-0 to make the Grand Final. They were defeated by an inform Wests Tigers outfit but the way they started off against the Broncos shows they'll be one of the teams to beat this year.

Brisbane just had no answers and the change of deck chairs by Wayne Bennett in the off season has done nothing to change the slide. The Broncos simply looked old, slow and stale despite it being just the opening round of the season. Bennett is under no pressure for his position but some serious changes have to be looked at with Brisbane having a monopoly of South-East Queensland to choose from and not getting it right.

Success brings out new fans in all places and today at Suncorp Stadium the Cowboys had a large section of crowd support. The recent success of North Queensland has brought out fans from all areas and they have the excitement machines in Bowen, Thurston, Sing and Ty Williams along with the calm and intelligent leadership of Travis Norton to draw even more new supporters to the club.

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