{"id":304217,"date":"2023-06-05T13:15:47","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T13:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=304217"},"modified":"2023-06-05T13:58:44","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T13:58:44","slug":"league-legends-shock-call-on-surging-cowboys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=304217","title":{"rendered":"League legend's shock call on surging Cowboys"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rugby league legend Phil Gould<\/a> has declared a shock NRL title contender after the weekend's results stating: "Cowboys<\/a> can win the comp."<\/p>\n

Speaking on Nine's 100% Footy<\/em>, \ufeffGould was strong in his belief that Penrith<\/a> are the runaway title favourites – sitting first on the ladder – but was impressed by the Cowboys 45-20 win over the Storm<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n

North Queensland achieved the remarkable victory without inspiring leader Jason Taumalolo, \ufeffand Gould believes they can get even better.<\/p>\n

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"They've got some good players to come back … Taumalolo hasn't been playing, Nanai has just come back into the side," he said.<\/p>\n

The Canterbury Bulldogs supremo did state "a lot of things have to go right between now and the end of the year" if the Cowboys are to be successful as they look to rescue themselves from \ufeff14th.<\/p>\n

\"Round<\/p>\n

Only two weeks ago, the side was shocked by the Wests Tigers at Leichardt Oval, suffering a 66-18 loss\ufeff, adding to the misery of a poor start.<\/p>\n

Gould couldn't pin point the one reason why they've started slowly, but explained they can't be counted out of the premiership race after dismantling Melbourne. \ufeff<\/p>\n

"I think that whatever it was (the reason for a slow start), last year's carry over; maybe they didn't have the off season; the World Cup, whatever it is, but you can't do what they did the other night and not have tremendous ability," he said.<\/p>\n

"To put 45 points on the Storm \ufeffsays to me that it's still there if they can just find it on a consistent basis."<\/p>\n

Currently the Cowboys only sit four points outside of the top eight with 12 while eighth placed Dolphins are on 16.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Roosters (9th) are on 16, while Manly (15), Knights (15), Parramatta (14) and Gold Coast (14) trail them.<\/p>\n

North Queensland also have three byes in hand, as the club looks to juggle the Origin period.<\/p>\n

100% Footy is now available as a podcast! Subscribe\/follow via<\/strong><\/em> <\/em>Apple<\/strong><\/em><\/a>,<\/strong><\/em> <\/em>Spotify<\/strong><\/em><\/a> <\/em>or<\/strong><\/em> <\/em>Google Podcasts<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Gould believes they could surge up the ladder with consistent form, similar to the Canberra Raiders who have scored seven wins from its last eight matches.<\/p>\n

"When you look at the competition \ufefftable, it's so condensed in those middle eight or ten teams, you only need to win four or five in a row," he said.<\/p>\n

"Look at the Raiders, the Raiders lost by 40 points to Penrith … and they're flying.<\/p>\n

\"Cowboys<\/p>\n

"So \ufeffif the Cowboys can string four or five wins together, you're going to have a very different reflection on them … they went to the preliminary final last year, I'm expecting they're going to be there at the back end of the year."<\/p>\n

Gould was also asked about the Brisbane Broncos chances, who sit equal first with Penrith, however he believes they could be a season away from glory, indicating any side will struggle to stop the Panthers from winning three titles in a row.<\/p>\n

"They can … probably not this year, I think certainly next year the Broncos, I see them probably 12 months away from a genuine premiership," he said.<\/p>\n

"I'm not saying they can't win it, all depends on players available at the back end of the year but Panthers deserve to be favourites, their defence is the best by a long way."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rugby league legend Phil Gould has declared a shock NRL title contender after the weekend's results stating: "Cowboys can win the comp." Speaking on Nine's […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":304222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304217"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=304217"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304227,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304217\/revisions\/304227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/304222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=304217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=304217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=304217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}