FULLBACK Scott Drinkwater has revealed North Queensland “brushed” the worst defeat by a home team in Premiership history within 24 hours of the fulltime siren.
The Cowboys last night bounced back from their 82-12 pizzling at the hands of Sydney Roosters a week ago with a convincing 30-8 success against Gold Coast at CBUS Super Stadium.
“I don’t know, this group’s pretty funny,” Drinkwater told Triple M.
“It was maybe a tough Friday but we moved past it pretty quickly. We did the review, brushed it.
“We weren’t going to let that define who we were this year. It was obviously disappointing and that but how good’s a week in rugby league?
“It was good to come away with a victory. We just tried really hard. We showed effort. We weren’t poor in those areas where it cost us last week.”
Drinkwater, who kicked five goals from as many attempts against the Titans, explained how coach Todd Payten and the players tweaked their defence to achieve a 92-point turnaround.
“We talked about, especially through the middle, moving faster than we had been,” he said.
“It pays off when we’re moving fast and we get our line set, we’re a harder team to attack against.”
NORTH QUEENSLAND 30 (Luki 2 Taumalolo Clifford Purdue tries Drinwater 5 goals) beat GOLD COAST 8 (Sami 2 tries) at CBUS Super Stadium.
Teams:
GC: Keano Kini; Dean Ieremia, Joji Fifita, Jaylan De Groot, Phillip Sami; Jayden Campbell, AJ Brimson; Moeaki Fotuaiki, Sam Verrills, Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, Beau Fermor, Josh Patston, Chris Randall. Res: Lachlan Ilias, Oliver Pascoe, Arama Hau, Kurtis Morrin, Klese Haas, Cooper Bai.
NQ: Scott Drinkwater; Braidon Burns, Zac Laybutt, Tom Chester, Murray Taulagi; Jake Clifford, Jaxon Purdue; Griffin Neame, Soni Luke, Jason Taumalolo, Heilum Luki, Kai O’Donnell, Reuben Cotter (c). Res: Ethan King, Thomas Mikaele, Matt Lodge, Coen Hess, Sam McIntyre, John Bateman.
Referee: Adam Gee.
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