Cowboys v Dragons: Todd Payten blasts players after second-straight loss

North Queensland coach Todd Payten openly questioned whether his players’ poor performance was due to mental weakness or physical exhaustion following the Cowboys’ 25-18 loss to St George Illawarra.

After last week publicly calling out captain Jason Taumalolo following their Round 1 loss to Penrith, the new Cowboys coach put the entire team on blast after falling short against the Dragons.

The Cowboys made a dream start when Coen Hess scored the opening try in just the second minute but trailed Anthony Girffin’s men 13-6 at the break.

They twice closed to within a point but with Taumalolo sidelined with a broken hand suffered at training, they were unable to overcome the Dragons.

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“Yeah disappointing, I thought we did our very best to throw the game away at different points,” Payten lamented.

“Every time we sort of gained some momentum, we made a pretty basic error which shifted the momentum and we dropped our heads and we haven’t got the resilience to fight our way out of that at the moment.

“In saying that, I still thought we had plenty of ball at the end of the game to win the game but I’m unsure whether we are a little confused, a little scared to go after the game or too fatigued, so we’ll have a look at the video and we’ll give some feedback tomorrow.”

Payten added: “We just lack that punch and we weren’t clean and I don’t think we’re all on the same page.

“… For the most part I think we’re a little bit scared to go after it at the moment.

“I’ve got to give them credit, I thought we started fast, I thought we went after the game in that part of it.

“But again, just the basic errors when we have the running of play is really detrimental to our head space and winning games.”

Payten, who is in the first season of a three-year deal with the Cowboys, declared his men fell into some old habits against the Saints.

“Our insisde-40 errors led to tries so there’s two things, we either stop making errors or if we do we’ve got to show more resilience and defend our line better.

“And that’s the difference between the good and the not-so-good teams.

“I thought we showed a better showing last week but tonight it was sort of poor old habits.”