{"id":74975,"date":"2025-08-17T12:07:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T12:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/74975\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T12:07:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T12:07:12","slug":"north-queensland-cowboys-humble-newcastle-knights-total-rugby-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/74975\/","title":{"rendered":"North Queensland Cowboys humble Newcastle Knights \u2013 Total Rugby League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                                        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.totalrl.com\/north-queensland-cowboys-humble-newcastle-knights\/\" title=\"Permanent Link to North Queensland Cowboys humble Newcastle Knights\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img width=\"675\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/79250287_ValemeiS-250817_SD_396_202581715126-675x360.jpg\" class=\"bestwp-post-thumbnail-single wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS 38 NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS 4<br \/>TOM SMITH, Queensland Country Bank Stadium, Sunday<\/p>\n<p>SCOTT DRINKWATER enjoyed a day out as North Queensland humbled Newcastle in the final match of round 24.<\/p>\n<p>The fullback scored the Cowboys\u2019 first and last tries, booted seven goals and assisted two more four-pointers to give the Townsville crowd something to cheer about at the end of a tough campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Nineteen-year-old Connor Votano made his NRL debut at fullback for Newcastle, but couldn\u2019t kick-start the Knights\u2019 faltering attack, which has now lost six straight.<\/p>\n<p>The win means the Cowboys cannot take out the wooden spoon, while the Knights remain locked in a battle at the bottom with the Titans.<\/p>\n<p>In an interesting footnote, referee Jarrod Cole \u2013 who recovered from a heart attack a few seasons ago \u2013 made his NRL debut.<\/p>\n<p>Drinkwater\u2019s opener inside four minutes set the tone, before Votano spilled a chance for a dream start then Drinkwater nailed a penalty-goal.<\/p>\n<p>The Bunker sin-binned Reece Robson for tackling Jacob Saifiti without the ball, but the 12-man Cowboys repelled the Knights \u2013 including Drinkwater\u2019s miracle try-saver on Saifiti.<\/p>\n<p>Tom Dearden snaffled a dropped ball and Braidon Burns sprinted 85 metres for an intercept try before the break.<\/p>\n<p>Jaxon Purdue continued the rout before Dom Young notched Newcastle\u2019s only points off a Jake Arthur bomb.<\/p>\n<p>But Jeremiah Nanai touched down a Drinkwater kick and Drinkwater combined with Dearden to finish it off in style.<\/p>\n<p>COWBOYS: 1 Scott Drinkwater, 2 Semi Valemei, 3 Jaxon Purdue, 18 Viliami Vailea, 5 Braidon Burns, 6 Jake Clifford, 7 Tom Dearden, 8 Jordan McLean, 9 Reece Robson, 10 Jason Taumalolo, 11 John Bateman, 12 Jeremiah Nanai, 13 Reuben Cotter. Subs (all used): 4 Zac Laybutt, 14 Karl Lawton, 15 Harrison Edwards, 16 Kai O\u2019Donnell, 17 Thomas Mikaele<\/p>\n<p>Tries: Drinkwater (4, 72), Dearden (30), Burns (32), Purdue (47), Nanai (67); Goals: Drinkwater 7\/7; Sin bin: Robson (19) \u2013 professional foul<\/p>\n<p>KNIGHTS: 1 Connor Votano, 2 Dom Young, 3 Dane Gagai, 4 Bradman Best, 5 Greg Marzhew, 6 Jake Arthur, 7 Jack Cogger, 8 Jacob Saifiti, 9 Jayden Brailey, 10 Leo Thompson, 11 Jermaine McEwen, 12 Kai Pearce-Paul, 13 Tyson Frizell. Subs (all used): 14 Matthew Arthur, 15 Mat Croker, 16 Thomas Cant, 17 Brodie Jones<\/p>\n<p>Tries: Young (54); Goals: Votano 0\/1<\/p>\n<p>SCORING SEQUENCE: 6-0, 8-0, 14-0, 20-0; 26-0, 26-4, 32-4, 38-4<\/p>\n<p>Rugby Leaguer &amp; League Express Men of the Match<br \/>Cowboys: Scott Drinkwater; Knights: Tyson Frizell<\/p>\n<p>Penalty count: 5-5; Half-time: 20-0; Referee: Jarrod Cole; Attendance: 16,640<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS 38 NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS 4TOM SMITH, Queensland Country Bank Stadium, Sunday SCOTT DRINKWATER enjoyed a day&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-74975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}