{"id":328958,"date":"2023-09-07T02:05:52","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T02:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=328958"},"modified":"2023-09-07T04:01:30","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T04:01:30","slug":"low-point-for-weapon-as-dreaded-syndrome-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=328958","title":{"rendered":"Low point for 'weapon' as 'dreaded syndrome' strikes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cowboys<\/a> were the surprise packets of the NRL<\/a> by a long way in 2022, and everyone expected they would only get better in 2023.<\/p>\n

But the dreaded second year syndrome seemed to hit several of their boom youngsters and they couldn't quite reproduce their heroics of the previous campaign.<\/p>\n

A terrible start proved to be the Cowboys' undoing. They lost eight of their first 13 games and were chasing their tails in the second half of the season as a result.<\/p>\n

LIVE UPDATES:<\/strong> All the scores and action from the US Open day ten<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Collingwood great's shock at brutal axing<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Matildas stars make history with Ballon d'Or nod<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Cowboys showed their potential by winning seven of the next 10 and claiming some big scalps along the way.<\/p>\n

\"Jason<\/p>\n

But \ufeffthe suspension of their strike centre Valentine Holmes<\/a> for a high shot on young Titan Jayden Campbell in round 23 was a massive blow and effectively sealed their fate.<\/p>\n

They missed his attacking flair and won just one game without him – against the Dolphins – and they finished a game out of the eight in 11th.<\/p>\n

Stream every game of the 2023 NRL Finals series live and free on<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Best player:<\/strong> Tom Dearden<\/a> came of age as an NRL playmaker last season and despite the problems of his team-mates, he was all class and a dangerous attacking weapon this season.<\/p>\n

Biggest disappointment:<\/strong> Jason Taumalolo<\/a> is still a weapon, but the marquee man turned 30 mid-season and many of his key stats were down on recent years. He failed to score a try for the first season in over a decade, didn't have a try assist and made just one line break.<\/p>\n

Key signing:<\/strong> The squad needs a freshen up, but it will be largely more of the same next season with young Viliami Vailea from the Warriors the only new face to date.<\/p>\n

2024 gains:<\/strong> Viliami Vailea (Warriors).<\/p>\n

2024 losses:<\/strong> James Tamou (retired).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Cowboys were the surprise packets of the NRL by a long way in 2022, and everyone expected they would only get better in 2023. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":328961,"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\/328958"}],"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=328958"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328962,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328958\/revisions\/328962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/328961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=328958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=328958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=328958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}