{"id":883930,"date":"2026-09-08T02:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T02:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/883930\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T02:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T02:22:13","slug":"nrl-news-2026-scott-drinkwater-100-interview-north-queensland-cowboys-defence-stats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/883930\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: Scott Drinkwater 100% interview; North Queensland Cowboys defence stats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cowboys<\/a> fullback Scott Drinkwater has admitted the side\u2019s issues in defence have plagued them for years. <\/p>\n

Under coach Todd Payten<\/a>, this will be the third time in five years the Cowboys have played finals, with an elimination clash ahead against Cronulla at Allianz Stadium on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Johnathan Thurston and Scott Drinkwater on 100% Footy.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

The knock on the Cowboys under Payten has forever been around their defence and it\u2019s been a problem again this season, conceding 652 points. With that, North Queensland is the only side in the top eight with a negative points differential. <\/p>\n

Last season they conceded 684 points and finished 12th, which was second to the Titans for worst defence. <\/p>\n

When the Cowboys finished fifth in 2024, they had the worst defence in the top eight, too. <\/p>\n

On Nine\u2019s 100% Footy, Allana Ferguson asked Drinkwater about the balance of attack and defence and whether they should just dial only into their try scoring ability. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good question, we haven\u2019t been able to answer that question for a few years to be honest,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been up and down in the defence area. We\u2019ve shown some signs in some games this year against Penrith and against the Roosters. At Magic Round we had 12 men for 20 minutes in that game and defended great, so it is there. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s up to the individual between the ears whether you want to put all your effort into that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll go after our footy with the ball as well. You\u2019ve got to be able to move the footy around and bring fatigue into a team and make them move. We always have a good plan with that, and probably put a whole heap of energy into that, and we\u2019re just taking too many breaths when we don\u2019t have the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drinkwater\u2019s men will have to make those changes quickly after conceding 50 points at home against the Raiders<\/a>. <\/p>\n

That performance left Payten \u201cshocked and very disappointed\u201d. <\/p>\n

Part of the reason behind the capitulation was Reuben Cotter being sin-binned off the first tackle for a high shot<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Reuben Cotter is sin-binned.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Cotter has since pleaded not guilty and will head to the NRL judiciary on Tuesday night after he was handed a one-match ban.<\/p>\n

Drinkwater wasn\u2019t willing to prejudice the case too much when asked about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019d be a massive loss, fingers crossed he\u2019s out there for us. He does so many gritty efforts in the middle there, and he\u2019s on every kick chase,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need him out there, he\u2019s our leader. I don\u2019t want to get in the politics of it, but there was nothing in it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cowboys fullback Scott Drinkwater has admitted the side\u2019s issues in defence have plagued them for years. Under coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":883931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-883930","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\/883930","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=883930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}