North Queensland Toyota Cowboys v Parramatta Eels NYC
4:45pm, Monday 27 July, 1300SMILES Stadium
Referee: Belinda Sleeman
Touch judges: Chris Notso & Giulian Fichera
NRL Cowboys v Eels: 7pm, Monday 27 July, 1300SMILES Stadium
TEAMS
Cowboys: 1.Yamba Bowie 2. Gideon Gela-Mosby 3. Akeripa Tia Kilifi 4. Conor Carey 5. Scott Schulte 6. Kyle Laybutt 7. Cooper Bambling 8. Viliame Kikau 9. Andrew Niemoeller 10. Ross Bella 11. Coen Hess 12. Temone Power 13. Kieran Quabba (c). Interchange: 14. Bill Cullen 15. Brandon Smith 16. David Munro 17. Jordan Kenworthy 18. Mitch Dunn.
Eels: 1. Bevan French 2. Abbas Miski 3. Tui Oloapu 4. Nathan Davis 5. Atini Gafa
6. Michael Doolan 7. Zach Dockar-Clay 8. Alex Twal (c) 9. Josh Grant 10. Aaron Pene 11. Tyrell Fuimaono 12. Josh Aloiai 13. Jeff Markus. Interchange: 14. Dylan Izzard 15. Tom Amone 16. Brandon Raeli 17. Fairouz Elkander 18. Paula Kaufusi 19. Mason Cerruto.
KEY FACTS
Todd Payten will take a largely unchanged team into the Monday twilight Round 20 National Youth Competition match against the Eels at 1300SMILES Stadium. Forward Bill Cullen comes back into the side and will take his place on the bench alongside Brandon Smith, David Munro and Jordan Kenworthy.
The young Cowboys are in second spot on the NYC ladder with 13 wins, three losses and a draw from 17 matches played. They are equal with the baby Broncos in 31 competition points but occupy second spot due to a superior for-and-against record. The team hasn’t been defeated since a round 10 loss to the Broncos, a winning streak of seven matches. The Eels (18 points) are on 10th place on the ladder with six wins, nine losses and two draws and are coming off a last-start 16-all draw against the Bulldogs.
The Cowboys‘ last-start 34-16 win over the Sea Eagles at Brookvale was a continuation of recent comfortable victories for the side, but Payten is not one to rest on his laurels and will be looking for continued improvement, describing the performance against Manly as “showing some good things without being polished”. Payten said the side was a bit sloppy in the ruck, and as a result of that drop in discipline, the team went away from what they know works in terms of attack.
On Parramatta, Payten nominated their edge backrowers Tyrell Fuimaono and Joshua Aloiai as being ones to watch while halfback Zach Dockar-Clay and prop and captain Alex Twal are junior Kiwi and Junior Kangaroo representatives respectively.
Cowboys winger and tryscoring machine Gideon Gela-Mosby scored a double against Manly last weekend and now has 23 four-pointers for the season. With seven regular season games remaining, Gela-Mosby is expected to seriously threaten the NYC season-tryscoring record of 29, set by Jake Mullaney in 2009.
COACH TODD PAYTEN: “Our last outing against Parramatta (Round 13) was our best game all season, so the challenge is to back that up tonight against the Eels.”
