By Tania Phillips
There won’t be a shield on the line this week for the Warwick Cowboys but their will be plenty to play for this weekend at Father Ranger Oval, Warwick on Saturday in the Toowoomba Rugby League Clash against Highfields.
The round four game will see the top-of-the-table Cowboys searching for their fourth win of the year and will be played in front of some of their top former players as part of Old Boys night.
Coach Col Speed said the former players would give the team extra incentive to win and attempt to do better than their semi final appearance of last year.
The team were in a similar position in the 2024 season before sliding a little off the pace as the season went on.
However, the club have moved to strengthen the side and have been rewarded with some impressive performances so far this year including last weekends big win 54-10 win over Southern Suburbs at Gold Park to clinch the Mark Browne Memorial Trophy.
The Cowboys ran in 10 tries to two including two each to Jake Speed and Caleb Murphy who also kicked seven of his 10 conversions.
“It’s a great start, you plan for these things when you’re doing your block preparations for each game,” he said.
“We were always looking at three from three but you try to break it down, take each game as it comes. But three from three is a nice start. We were in this situation last year so we want to keep building on that and keep improving.
“Our for and against is probably the improvement factor.”
The Cowboys have scored 140 points from their three games while conceding 38 points. It gives them a differential of 102 and places them firmly on the top of the TRL ladder after the first three rounds.
They scored ten tries to run over Southern Suburbs however, for the third week in a row the Cowboys had to come from behind with their opposition scoring the first try of the match. It’s a statistic that coach Speed is determined change.
“We started off a little bit dusty but in saying that, give credit to Souths they captitalised on some really good field positions and we’ve got to learn to capitalise on field positions when we’re in the early stages of the game,” he said.
“It’s the next step in learning their craft.
“We’ve got a very young squad, in particularly our spin but we’ve got to show patience. We have to set a platform and build the pressure in the early stages of the game so then we will be able to capitalize on more points or better field position in the first half rather than coming home with a wet sail in the second half. But I’ll take the win whichever way.”
While Speed said he was happy with half-back Caleb Murphy’s kicking in the game he was even more impressed with his on-field performance.
“He’s taken some massive steps forward in particularly in his game management and leadership,” Speed said.
“He’s a tough little character as well. He’s getting better with each game.
“We had some good performances. I talked to the president this morning I think sometimes when we ask players give feedback on who they thought performed really well and I think they pretty well got it this week. You’re always nervous, sometimes they might pick their mates but I think this time they got it. Our player’s player was Caleb Murphy and then our three points went to Tui Oloapu who just became a dad.
“We were very grateful that he came out. The little bub had to go back into hospital but he came out on the eve of the game and came and played for us then went straight back to his partner and their newborn baby young Joseph John, so we were very grateful for that.
“So our two points went to Tommy Bell who is a bit of an unsung hero in our sport and one point went Joseph Vite.”
This week’s opponents Highfield are seventh on the ladder but Speed won’t be under estimating them.
“It doesn’t matter where they sitting, we give all the respect they deserve,” he said.
“We are more focussed on our own performance. We still have areas we need to improve on and we’ll work on those this week and will definitely be up for the game and of course it’s the Old Boys game as well.
“Which is a good opportunity to pay our respect to the past players.”
