Cowboys' Henry not satisfied despite win
While the Cowboys are happy to return to the NRL winners list coach Neil Henry is not getting too carried away with his team's performance.
North Queensland dominated the Gold Coast on Saturday night for large portions of the game and took full advantage of some Titans dropped ball to blow the scoreline out to 32-18.
But it was second-rower Mark Minichiello's brace of tries that has Henry most concerned.
On both occasions, the recently re-signed forward waltzed through yawning holes in the Cowboys line in the centre of the field.
While the leaky right edge was watertight on Saturday, Henry said the whole line would need to be consistently strong or risk being torn apart by the flamboyant Wests Tigers next weekend.
"We have to be realistic about our efforts, it wasn't too bad (but) it was scrappy in places," he said.
"It went try for try, we were disappointed that we turned out or turned in and gifted a couple of tries you would say are soft tries on the back of our defence which I thought was solid for most of the night.
"We tended to fall over a couple of times and they had some momentum and scored some relatively easy points.
"We need to fix that up because Wests Tigers are certainly in fine form with their attack as well.
"It's coming together, as we said after the game it's a work in progress from week to week.
"There's parts of that game we really like, there's a couple of ugly parts there too where we need to be a bit better.
"It's about being consistent."
The Tigers fixture will be held at Dairy Farmers Stadium in Townsville where the Cowboys are a perfect two-from-two this season.
Henry said it would be vital to keep that winning streak intact to lay the platform for later in the season when the club faces arduous road trips.
"We've got another home game so we've got another chance to keep our home record intact so that's a bit of an advantage for us playing up here again," he said.
"The challenge will be when we go away again and we'd need to get a couple of wins there - we've got a couple of away games on the trot later in the season.
"That's our challenge, consistency.
"It is a work in progress (but) there's a lot to like about that game."
Henry is likely to stick with his young team next weekend after making several changes following the round three loss against the Dragons.
Five-eighth Ray Thompson showed plenty of promise and set up one try with a perfect flick pass and former Tiger Shannon Gallant is likely to hold out the returning Ty Williams after several damaging runs on kick returns and crucial save from a William Zillman kick in the second half.
Will Tupou was solid in the centres while James Tamou was one of the most damaging forwards on the field.
Leeson Ah Mau was strong defensively in his limited minutes on debut.
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