North Queensland coach Neil Henry has given Matt Bowen a glowing pass mark for his performance at halfback in Saturday night's NRL win over the Canberra Raiders.

Now he must decide whether he decides to keep him there.

Missing representative halfback and captain Johnathan Thurston to Origin, Henry trained the dynamic fullback in the playmaking role in secret all week before unleashing him in the halves in the Cowboys' 16-8 win.

With Ray Thompson out for the season with a shoulder injury, fellow young half Michael Morgan battling shoulder and sternum complaints and Grant Rovelli struggling with form, Henry is running low on options for foils for Thurston.

He will think long and hard in the coming days about the prospect of moving Bowen into the halves on a more permanent basis starting on Saturday against the Storm.

"It was a success (Saturday night), we'll have to have a look at it for next week when JT is back," Henry said.

The move also allowed former Tigers flyer Shannon Gallant a chance to play in the same team as his childhood idol and he stood tall in the custodian role.

That could force Henry's hand with the coach desperate to find more attacking options with the club languishing towards the bottom of the table after a horror first half to the season.

"We talked about it after last week, we thought (about) what the combinations would be and even though Grant Rovelli was very good defensively last week he didn't have much in attack for us," he said.

"We knew that Shannon would be ok from his injury, he had a rib cartilage problem, so we just thought we would go that way.

"We needed good metres off our back three and with Ash going to the wing he gives us that and John Williams does and Shannon at the back."

Henry was also pleased with Bowen's defensive steel in the front line of attack, the diminutive back effecting a number of bone-rattling tackles including two consecutive hits chasing his own kick.

"Matty has been struggling to bring the ball back a bit as well so I put him in the front line," Henry said.

"We've got no problems with his defence, he come up with some great tackles, he is a good front on defender anyway.

"He covered well and he handled the edge defence really well."

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