With the weather set at 28 degrees and 75% humidity, the coldest climate team in the competition were faced with a classic late summer fixture when they rocked up in Townsville to take on the Cowboys on Saturday afternoon for what was an instantly iconic game of two halves. For the first thirty-five minutes North Queensland ran riot, putting down three unanswered tries before Emre Guler finally turned the tide on the brink of half time, and the Raiders piled on eighteen of their own, with a late Chad Townsend field goal sealing the deal.

In other words, the Cows picked up right where they left off last year, while it was a tribute to the tenacity of Canberra in the second forty that they narrowed it to a one-point difference. The continuity for North Queensland, at least in the first stanza, wasn’t all that surprising, since their lineup was unchanged from their final 2022 game against Parra with the exception of Coen Hess starting in the left second row after Tom Gilbert’s departure for the Dolphins. Even better, James Tamou was home, playing off the bench here for the first time since 2016.

On the other side of the Steeden the Raiders had a more altered roster, the starkest absence being that of Xavier Savage, whose broken jaw during the 34-18 trial loss to Canterbury meant that Sebastian Kris had a crack at the fullback jersey. Meanwhile, Danny Levi was back in the NRL after a stint at Huddersfield and starting at hooker, Pasami Saulo was making his club debut in place of Josh Papalii, who was out for the week with a mild calf strain, and Harley Smith-Shields was trotting out to the centres for his first appearance in the NRL since 2021.

For the first stanza, the Cows enjoyed a near-perfect completion rate, making it 21 from 21 until a 37^th minute error and absolutely shining in the spine, with Reece Robson driving it hard and fast up the middle, Tom Dearden looking dangerous whenever he had ball in hand and Scott Drinkwater putting in a cracking start to the season. He had two gymnastic putdowns, one right on the try line, one right on the dead ball line, and came up with an equally heroic save at the 51^st minute, when he stopped Fogarty grounding his own kick at the last second.

Committed to the green machine the moment he hit the park, Saulo took the first carry, and while Joe Tapine didn’t make much headway on the second, Elliot Whitehead cleared the twenty on the third, before Hudson Young brought it up the middle, where Robson and Hess repelled him at the thirty. By the time Fogarty put boot to ball he was at the very brink of Cowboys territory, launching a high one that Kyle Feldt reached out to grab as if he had all the time in the world, setting up Murray Taulagi to put down five post-contacts on tackle two.

Val Holmes made even more metres after contact, bringing the ball from halfway to the opposition forty, where Townsend aimed his first bomb of the year directly at Jordan Rapana’s corner, only to bump the Raiders up the park when he was called offside on the chase. Whitehead hit North Queensland’s end on tackle two, the Raiders spread it right for a rollicking Corey Harawira-Naera run, Levi chucked it back inside for a reliable Saulo steadier, and Tapine tried to elasticise up the middle, only to lose it into a commited low hit from Hess.

It was to be the first in a series of plosive tackles over the first quarter, many of which came from the Raiders as they defended their line against the onslaught of North Queensland position that started to accumulate now. Taulagi nabbed a penalty on play one off the scrum, thanks to a slow peel from Levi, and Dearden found himself in position for a good attacking kick on the last, only to feed a short pass across for Jason Taumalolo to charge towards the left padding, where CNH came in low and Saulo piled on top for a staunch read on their chalk.

Jack Wighton sent the next kick over the side to get his men some breathing-space, and that galvanised Matthew Timoko into two monster plays – the first a merciless tackle that drove Scotty Drinkwater back twenty metres like he was debuting from reserve-grade; the second a split-second shift back for some serious pressure on Dearden’s kick. Yet these big efforts ended up working against the Raiders, since they generated a fresh intensity from the Cowboys in turn, commencing with Taulagi lifting Kris clean off the turf to unlock the footy.

Just like that the hosts had reclaimed ownership of the match, and while the Raiders’ longing to hit back was evident in their collective push on the scrum – big enough that it had to be reset – it was an impotent gesture that faded into oblivion as soon as Robson won six again from Whitehead with a quick dart out the left on tackle one. A short ball from Townsend now brought Hess to the brink of the line, where CHN rallied to hold him up, before Dearden tried to pivot off the right boot a bit further infield, where a big Kris-Whitehead combo parried him.

Finally, Jordan McLean slammed to ground two metres out from the right padding, and actually got his arm free for a possible rare offload, but was cleaned up clinically by a committed Tom Starling. It was at this point that Drinkwater started to come into his own, as if he’d needed a few minutes to translate the indignity of that Timoko hit back into a fresh flowering of his footy genius. He delivered now with a mercurial grubber that ricocheted up the chest of Smith-Shields and then eluded him once more as he dove to ground to take it.

Luckily, Rapana was there at the death to roll onto it, but the Cows still had their third scrum, and were confident enough to consolidate with the same basic play – breaking left, where Drinkwater popped it on for Dearden, who was brought down by a tough Nick Cotric shot, off the ground and onto his back. This culminated a sterling defensive period for the Raiders, as Saulo shut down Hess, Wighton and Young combined to halt Taumalolo, and the green machine ground their teeth for another bout as Reuben Cotter got six again off Whitehead.

Again, Drinkwater sent it out to Dearden, and this time Rapana attempted an intercept, only to cough it up, before bizarrely booting it over the sideline so that no Cowboys could secure it. Yet this strange flex paid off, at least for the moment, as the hosts opted to take the penalty shot, which Holmes missed despite scoring exactly 100 goals last year, as part of his season-topping tally of 244. In the background, Cotric was getting some head attention after the hit on Dearden, while JTamou was stretching in anticipation of his epic Townsville homecoming.

Hess took things up a notch on play one of the restart, when he allowed a three-man pack to almost raise him to the horizontal so as to ensure the cleanest offload of the game to Dearden, who flicked it on for Taumaolo to barge his way up the middle, before Robson got McLean in place for another direct hit-up as a prelude to making fifteen from dummy half himself. With the metres eaten, the Cows swept left, where Dearden showed it and tried to cross, but was stopped by a superb sequel to Cotric’s heroic shut-down a few minutes earlier.

This time it took three men to prevent the try – Fogarty taking the brunt of the contact, Kris helping out, and Saulo tumbling in as third man – although Townsend got the repeat set with a grubber that was aimed at the left padding, but worked just as well when it careened in goal, where Wighton was forced to bang it dead with Nanai and Hiku on his back. North Queensland were starting to look really methodical now, as Taumalolo took the first charge, McLean followed suit, and Townsend sent it back inside for Cotter to add his bulk to the fray.

The Cowboys brought all that focus to bear on the left edge, which they were determined to crack, sweeping through Drinkwater and Holmes only for Cotric to deliver another massive save, reaching out his full wingspan to knock the footy back before it could reach Taulagi. Still, the third time was the charm for the hosts, as they transcended all these left side frustrations with the silkiest sweep so far – wide ball from Townsend, wide ball from Dearden, and then a subliminal double pump from Drinkwater as Hess ran the decoy on his immediate outside.

It was enough to wrongfoot Cotric, who hit Holmes just a fraction too late to prevent the tap on for Taulagi, who basically strolled his way to the line, only shifting the Steeden from both hands out to his left at the very death, when he landed footy-first with Timoko applying some late pressure. The cult winger had now scored in seven straight NRL games, bringing his men to only 4-0 when Holmes sent the sideline conversion off the left post – only half of where the Cowboys would have been if their champion kicker of 2023 season had been on song now.

For the most part, though, North Queensland appeared to have picked up right where they left off last year. On the brink of the second quarter, they had completed 11 sets (compared to 3 from the Raiders) and enjoyed 74% of possession, and now scored back-to-back off another trio of hard runs from Taumalolo, McLean and Cotter that laid the foundation for two incredible playmaking combos, the first of which saw Dearden bust his way through a couple of tackles, appear to read a couple of plays in advance, and pop a clutch ball out to Robson.

The next combo was pure rugby league poetry – an ineffable synergy between fullback and halfback that was even more sublime in the first stint of the season. Ten out from the line, Townsend dropped the footy off the side of his boot, gently arcing it back towards the crossbars, where Drinkwater, as if impelled by the same elegant motion, burst through the line, caught it seamlessly on the bounce, cradled it into his chest, and landed softly to ground despite the brunt of a last-ditch Hudson tackle – the loft and fall of a perfectly timed dance.

Holmes slotted through his first goal of the year to make it 10-0 on the board but this moment belonged to Drinkwater, who would go on to have one of his finest quarters in the no. 1 jersey now. The Cows delivered a solid set after points, anchored in a rollicking run from Nanai, who made eight post-contacts on the third, before McLean continued to be a workhorse up the middle by dragging the defence over halfway. Nanai shone again at the back of a Townsend bomb, slamming in hard to present Kris with his biggest challenge in the no. 1 jersey thus far.

Fogarty was only at the thirty by the time he shaped to kick and even then bobbled it backwards before regaining it, dummying a couple of times, and arriving on the brink of halfway as a three-man pack held him up. It was only the Raiders’ fourth completed set, although it didn’t feel that different from their aborted stints in their own end, while the hosts had another full set down the Canberra end, where Taumalolo nearly busted straight through a Starling ankle tap, and Kris had to get on his bike to tap a crafty Robson grubber into touch.

Even then, he only got it over the backline with a fingertip, and so a new wave of precarity flooded the Raiders side, who had made 166 to 46 tackles, as Rapana went short with the dropout. Holmes took it at the thirty, drifted along the defence, and made his way up the middle, where Tapine ripped the footy free, only for Guler to join the tackle at just the wrong moment. This time Holmes nailed the penalty kick, bringing the Cowboys to twelve unanswered points, and bringing Canberra to the peak of their defensive crisis in the process.

To their credit they stepped up here, keeping Hess to the twenty, Neame to the thirty, Cotter within the forty, and Taumalolo to halfway, before Rapana took a shallow bomb from Townsend with Feldt on his back. Even so, the visitors had made thirteen times as many tackles in their own half as North Queensland, who were sitting at 39-3, and needed to make the most of a fluid run from Timoko, who dragged Cotter and Hess for five metres after contact to get them back in Cowboys territory, where Wighton decided to chip it on the fly.

No sooner had Drinkwater taken it, however, than he was shoulder charged by Rapana, and if there was any question about a penalty, the backliner’s backchat settled it. Once more the Cows were flowing up the middle, as Taumalolo came off for a breather, Corey Horsburgh jumped off the bench, and some silky passing from Robson and Townsend set up Drinkwater for a near beak before he was chopped down by Wighton. Robson delivered from dummy half on the next play too, with a wide ball for Dearden to dummy and go down a metre short.

CHN might have dove on the next Townsend grubber, but even so Wighton was barely at his forty by the time he soared the biggest kick of the night back to the Cowboys’ ten, where Drinkwater returned it over the twenty by the time that Guler got to him. Half an hour in and the Cows were still on 18/18 as Townsend bombed from the forty, Rapana collected it under pressure from Nanai, and the Raiders received the very last thing they needed when Smith-Shields fumbled the play-the-ball after rising rapidly from some fairly solid contact with Feldt.

North Queensland had the scrum thirty-five out and moved methodically up the middle third, ushering in their most dynamic period so far, which Drinkwater bookended with a pair of enterprising plays. In the first, he grabbed a short ball from Townsend and twist-and-spun away from Wighton only to be downed by CHN and Horsburgh a few metres out from the line. From there, Townsend stepped further into the spotlight, chipping to the left, and then scooping up a brilliant tap-back from Hess with one hand before dropping it on the boot again.

It was a beautiful moment of hand-foot synergy, while the kick was weighted just right to elude Kris, meaning that Cotric had to bang it dead with Holmes on his back, and even then careened head-first into the footy as they both tumbled into touch. North Queensland had their fifth dropout, and were on 20/20 completed sets, as Neame failed to offload through Young and CHN out on the right, but still caused enough havoc to galvanise a rapid left sweep that ended with Dearden getting past Fogarty, brushing off Guler, and glimpsing open space.

Only the most desperate Canberra pack so far could hold him up, with Starling doing the heavy lifting with a massive wraparound tackle as Kris and Cotric piled on in a second wave of defence. Still, the spectacle of Dearden’s run, and Neame’s prelude charge, infused the Cowboys with a fresh burst of belief, as Jamayne Taunoa-Brown barged into a Horsburgh-led swarm beside the left padding, and Robson shaped left, only to sneak it off the side of the boot, taking the Raiders utterly by surprise as Drinkwater crystallised his superb first forty.

The young halfback read Robson’s play beautifully, and was accelerating off his line a millisecond before boot hit ball. Any later and he would have missed it but this was clutch perfection, as Scotty ground it on the brink of the dead ball line, at such a contorted angle that he was almost forced to somersault his way into touch before rising to greet an exuberant home crowd. It was his fourth career double, and the apex of North Queensland’s first forty, bringing them to the eighteen that Canberra would grind their way to matching.

In fact, anything less spectacular than Drinkwater’s grounding would have been insufficient to sustain the Cows through eighteen unanswered points from the Raiders in turn. Cotter continued a massive start in the front row with some metre eating early in the restart, but the hosts finally broke their perfect completion, thirty-seven minutes into the match, when Neame coughed it up into a Guler-Whitehead combo. The Cows had 28 tackles inside the opposition twenty and the Raiders got their first now, using it to build to their first try as well.

A Whitehead-Starling offload got them a further bump into North Queensland territory by tempting a Neame ruck error, before Guler set his sights once again on the left padding, and delivered this time off a perfectly timed short ball from Starling at active dummy half – lofted at just the right moment and angle for Guler to ricochet right off Nanai and Taunoa-Brown, leaving nobody in his path but Drinkwater, who might have had a prodigious opening half, yet was still no match for the bulk and determination of Guler storming in from such close range.

In other words this was a commitment play, a critical statement from the Raiders ninety seconds out from halftime, and the spark they needed to work towards the 18-18 crisis of the dying minutes. Guler had also broken a 21-game drought, while Fogarty departed from Holmes’ slow warm-up by slotting through his first goal attempt before his men headed into the sheds. To their credit, the visitors had scored off their first campout upon the Cowboys’ line and had the last statement in an opening forty that had belonged to North Queensland.

The Raiders had won a whopping ten matches since 2020 when trailing at half time – equal first in the NRL – so it wasn’t inconceivable that they might hit back after the break if they could harness the flow. North Queensland had first possession though and delivered a methodical set, with Cotter and Drinkwater driving it up the middle, and Townsend launching a good long kick to ensure that Rapana had to step back over the ten to take it, before Nanai and Neame careened in to prevent him making any significant headway beyond his red zone.

Nevertheless, Cotric crashed onto the halfway line on tackle four, Horsburgh muscled it into the opposition forty, and a quick dummy half pickup from Starling meant that by the time Drinkwater took the kick and surrendered to the chase he was deep inside his own ten. Peta Hiku tried to compensate with an early pass to Taulagi, and his aim was good, but when Murray twisted into a low shot from Timoko to offload back to the ex-Warrior, the combo came apart. Canberra had the first close-range position since the sheds, and it intensified.

The Cowboys had a brief chance to catch their breath as Starling had his head strapped, and for a moment it looked like the scrum from the ten would come to nothing, as Wighton received a bad ball from the base and had to fall face-first on the ground to collect it as Drinkwater and Townsend piled on. Yet with Chad conceding an offside within the ten, the Raiders had another shot at the North Queensland line, and attempted to capitalise on it with a series of charges from a couple of metres out, starting with Guler aiming at the right edge.

It took the combined heft of Robson and Cotter to bring him down, before Starling sent CHN even closer to the chalk, where four Cowboys defenders had to scramble to hold him up. Sensing the right side was exhausted for now, the young hooker popped it back inside for Whitehead to target the left post and then continued to sweep it left, until Smith-Shields found himself trapped at the end of a cut-out ball, meaning Rapana had no chance but to send a high one back inside for Wighton, who leaped up AFL-style to collect it in both hands.

With that kind of pressure, he might have done better to wait a beat to kick, or even have passed instead, but instead he dropped it on the boot immediately, sending it right over the dead ball line. Yet for the second time, a frustrated play from Wighton led to a fresh set for the Raiders, as Feldt turned his back to bang into him after the Steeden had left his toes. Horsburgh set his stamp on the next bout of position, with two big charges beside the right post, but the defining statement came from Nanai, who delivered the toughest tackle so far.

Sensing that Whitehead might make it over the line on his second crack on the inner left edge, Jeremiah came in hard and low, not only lifting him clean off the turf, but leaving him winded on the ground as the set devolved into a forward ball from Fogarty to Smith-Shields and another aborted left sweep. So brutal was the contact that the big second-rower had to have his right leg strapped, in what became a rallying cry for the Cowboys after this unexpected campout on their own line, as they found themselves feeding the next scrum from their ten.

With Hiku winning a penalty on the very first charge from Wighton, the man who had garnered so much position over the last few minutes, it felt like we might be in for a sudden shift in momentum. Sure enough, Cotter took his 13^th hit-up on the brink of the twenty, now comfortably sitting on the most run metres of the North Queensland forwards, and Robson followed with a dummy and run to usher his men into the ten, where Hess drew in Fogarty, Starling and Timoko in a desperate effort to hold him up as he drove it towards the left corner.

Dearden ended with a chip towards the crossbar that, by all accounts, should have been the icing on this superb North Queensland accumulation. It would have been too, if Kris hadn’t come up with his most heroic moment at fullback yet, contesting Nanai with such force that he was down in backplay and off the park by order of the independent doctor a set later. So categorical was his victory that there was no need for a replay, and no chance that Taunoa-Brown, who had scooped up the Steeden as it ricocheted, would manage to recover the try.

Against all the odds, the Raiders had come up with a riposte to Nanai’s enormous hit on Whitehead, and with both sides thwarted over the last ten minutes, it felt like we were returning to a level playing-field, especially since the Cows hadn’t put down points since their streak ended at the 34^th minute. Dearden dummied and tried to cruise deep into Canberra territory midway through the next set but was halted conclusively by CHN, as Ara Mariota made his second NRL appearance since his 27 minutes against Penrith in Round 21 last year.

Feldt tried to mirror Kris’ aerial dynamics at the end of the next set but just ended up getting tangled up in Smith-Shields’ legs when they were a metre off the turf. Rapana was now at fullback and made a decisive gesture by creating space up the right for an epic two-tier Timoko run that would mark the first step in the next bout of field position. Part one saw him brought down by Dearden, only to break away, and come chest to chest with Hess, who also couldn’t maintain a hold on him, as he made another five metres and set his sights on Holmes.

For a moment it looked like Val would be unable to prevent a break, since he had to really claw at Timoko’s jersey, and even then was swung 360 degrees by the time that Robson piled on to help shut down the play. All that sudden energy up the right edge was like a swing that the Raiders used to accelerate back to the left, and yet once again Wighton’s timing was slightly off, as he dummied several times, drawing the entire rhythm of the sweep into showing the Steeden, but ultimately waiting just a little too late to pump it across for Starling.

As a result, the pass was too high, although Starling did well to fumble it backwards, and then scoop it up right before Nanai tumbled on top. Canberra had lost some momentum but they still had possession and recovered quickly with a Young steadier up the right edge and a Fogarty kick to the same corner, where Timoko came up with a superb sequel to his heroic run by leaping up under extreme pressure to pop the footy back in field. In one of the great clutch plays of the game, Guler chased it down, got it up, and offloaded facing his own line.

Mariota was the recipient, and in turn popped it on for Fogarty to dummy briefly from left to right, trot five metres into the twenty, and then take a second boot – this time a rolling grubber that he would have popped down himself before the dead ball line if not for a superhuman effort from Drinkwater, who drew on the brilliance of his first stanza by reaching out an arm to bang it dead at the last second, before opting for a short one with the dropout. It was a valiant effort but in the end it just conceded the Raiders another stint within the ten.

Guler now stepped into Whitehead’s boots with a charge into McLean beside the right post, before the green machine came up with another aborted left sweep, and some further mistiming from Wighton, who lofted it a little high, such that Young could only reach out his right hand to bump it on. This was a lucky match for the Canberra five-eighth, however, since once more a North Queensland error saved the day – a Hiku offside that should have galvanised the visitors into some creative defence, but actually led to a fairly lacklustre set.

For the most part, it looked like this would be a series of unimaginative one-out plays, as Horsburgh and Mariota set the scene with burly charges towards the chalk. That just made it all the more spectacular, however, when Starling tweaked this close-range formula, by kicking from dummy half, gathering in the ricochet off Nanai, and launching himself so aggressively into Granville that he was hanging parallel to the ground, like he was trying to make a low tackle against the try line himself, as Robson and JTB failed to find an avenue into the contact.

It was the ultimate forward pack try – a hooker putting himself on the line like a frontrower, and as Starling rose, his jersey red with blood, it felt like this might well be the tipping-point for Canberra, especially once a Fogarty kick reduced the deficit to a converted try. They made magnificent metres on the restart, as Horsburgh had the first run, Whitehead took some marginally high contact from Robson in his stride,  Guler offloaded for Starling, who dummied a couple of times to put down fifteen, and Tapine marked his return with a rollicking twelve.

Rapana made it look even easier as he cruised into the thirty, so Wighton felt like he was flying by the time he chipped into the left corner – flying leisurely, since he was all languor and relaxation here, a stark contrast to Drinkwater, who collected it with a boot over the sideline in the face of CHN and Smith-Shields. By this stage the Raiders were sitting at 68% of second stanza possession, and looked set for another series of one-out plays, only to change up the formula once again when Rapana dropped it on his boot on tackle three beside the left post.

Once again, too, Nanai became the ricochet, as he reached out a leg to try and deflect it, while Drinkwater got caught up in the contact, leaving it to Robson to dive on the footy, right on the try line, and give it a massive whack into touch a microsecond before Rapana got hands to it, in an even clutchier save than Drinkwater had provided at the end of Fogarty’s double kick. As if trying to recoup his spotty last few minutes, Scotty went short for the dropout, and Feldt put out both hands to try and catch it, with no one swinging around to provide backup.

The lack of support proved fatal, since not only did the footy elude the wiry winger’s grasp, but it landed straight in the outstretched arms of Wighton. Hiku had been in the vicinity albeit not close enough to have any chance at collecting the Steeden, and all he could offer was a flailing swipe in Wighton’s direction, as the big five-eighth curved cruisily over the line and booted the ball into the crowd with the same languor that he’d landed the last kick on Drinkwater, in the very apex of Canberra’s football flow tonight, as Fogarty lined up the tee.

Fogarty had his hardest angle of the night but still sailed it beautifully between the posts to wrap up the match at 18-18. It felt like an age since North Queensland last touched the ball. Like clockwork Guler, Horsburgh and Tapine drove it up the park, before Rapana swept it out through Young to CHN, whose offload got Jordan deep into opposition territory, where Young added to the sense of consolidation by taking another assertive charge. It was frustrating, then, when Fogarty dummied one time too many, and so found himself trapped on the last.

Even if Fogarty’s pass to Wighton hadn’t been forward, and Wighton’s to CHN hadn’t followed suit, it all came apart on the try line, where Nanai failed to scoop up a Smith-Shields kick, only for Young to knock on at the end of it all. Finally, North Queensland had the ball back and it was paramount they finish this set, as the big boppers took on the brunt of the early tackles, and all the Canberra bench players converged their outstanding performance so far into a group tackle on Taumalolo on play four. For a moment, the Cows seemed to be consolidating.

It was a rude awakening, then, when Hess came up with their worst play of the night, executing such a messy kick that it looked more like a drop. This was another make-or-break moment for Canberra, as CHN left the park after some chest-on-chest contact with Feldt on the previous set and Kris prepared to take on the custodian role again. Keen to lean into that tipping-point, Wighton kicked on the fourth, and yet the footy trickled over the sideline in a pretty deflating way, Drinkwater confident with his timing as Raiders crowded in behind him.

Holmes contributed a deft dummy half run two tackles into the next set, clearing space for McLean to hit halfway with Tapine round his waist and Guler clinging onto his legs. As a result, Townsend was just inside the forty when he put boot to ball, prompting the first of two great collects from Rapana, who leaped up and took it on the chest with no competition from Nanai, who’d apparently had enough of the aerial contests. Smith-Shields might have been shut down but Timoko bent the line, and Wighton left-booted a towering bomb under pressure.

Saulo now stepped into the spotlight, combining first with Whitehead for a rousing chase, then with Horsburgh to clean up Taulagi on tackle two, and finally prevented Cotter hitting halfway off a Robson dummy half run. Townsend might have kicked from the same spot, at the Raiders’ forty, but Canberra had taken the wind out of the Cowboys’ sails, especially since Rapana came up with another terrific take, the exact opposite of the last one, as he got right down on the turf to get the Steeden directly on his chest, putting his entire body on the line.

Nevertheless, the visitors didn’t break their own end on this set, although Starling made up for it by commandeering a monster chase on Drinkwater, before Taulagi was contained once again, and Holmes was unable to crack the thirty on tackle three. The great arm wrestle of the night had arrived, as Hess burrowed beyond the forty, Cotter hit halfway, Townsend booted just inside North Queensland territory, and Kris delivered his first rollicking return since trotting back, while Starling took a well-deserved break and headed off for the bench.

He only made it to the sideline where he lay down in exhaustion, much as Guler had squatted on his haunches before reaching the pine a few minutes before, testament to the enormous impact these bench players had made over the second stanza. Canberra made a good advance now, setting up Fogarty to bomb from twenty-eight metres out, but Taulagi made up for his frustrated charges on the last two sets with one of the best aerial takes of his career, masterfully cradling the footy into his chest in the face of a relentless contest from Timoko.

Buoyed up by that newfound energy, Taumalolo took a crack at the line four plays into the next set but it was the only real attacking flamboyance on this stint, as Townsend put boot to ball and Kris collected it at speed, notching up thirty on the fly to gift his men a full set in enemy territory, while the home crowd raised up a roar of objection to Wighton’s late contact on Chad, which went unnoticed by the refs. With a little over ten minutes on the clock, and a flashback to the earlier campout on the Cowboys line, this was a critical moment for Canberra.

It was agonising, then, when all Wighton’s rocks-and-diamonds footy today came to a head with a poor left foot boot that Townsend took directly on the chest. As if that weren’t enough to infuse the stadium with a fresh burst of North Queensland spirit, James Tamou now loped into the battle, taking his first run on the penultimate play to set up Drinkwater for a kick just inside the Raiders’ forty. The prospect of a field goal was now looming on the horizon, as Cotric got with a good collect, and spun away from Neame only to be downed by Dearden.

Kris was thoroughly thwarted by a Tamou-Cotter combo a play later and Timoko couldn’t make any headway through Nanai and Taumaolo either, so the Raiders did well to get Wighton in place for a soaring bomb 47 metres out, especially since Cotric was down in backplay, clutching his leg in pain, and wouldn’t return to the fray for a few more plays. Young consolidated Wighton’s kick by charging into Drinkwater, forcing Townsend to show it in a bid for more position. Levi held him up but he still got the sneaky offload out the back for Robson.

The North Queensland hooker flicked it on for Neame to nab some more metres in turn, as the match reached its last surge of intensity, with Kris jumping off the ground to take the next Drinkwater kick, despite the lack of a dangerous chase, as if trying to inject his men with one final burst of energy. Wighton’s next kick was right along the ground but it was also a beauty, and Drinkwater could only pull it up behind the line. Feldt stepped up now, steadying his men with a rousing run up the middle, laying a platform for Tamou and Cotter to add some heft.

They did well to get Townsend forty out for the kick, and with Kris unable to break the twenty in the face of a Cotter-Robson pileon, it felt like the Cows had a small window of momentum now, despite only having notched up two tackles inside the Raiders’ twenty since the break, compared to 28 in the first forty. The situation was all the more urgent in that adrenalin was peaking out on the Raiders’ left edge, where Wighton soared a gorgeous pass out to the wing only for Smith-Shields to bobble it once, twice and then lose it with open space ahead of him.

To add to the frustration, Whitehead wanted to challenge it but made the request too late, leaving an exhausted North Queensland outfit to gather halfway up the park for the scrum that might just settle the game. Adam Reynolds had already put down a field goal win this round, and the Cows followed suit now, as Neame delivered his best post-contacts to drag Saulo to the thirty, Taumalolo and Robson carved up more of the field, and Townsend slotted the Steeden through the uprights, in what would become their only point in the back forty.

Forty minutes had also elapsed since their last points and the catharsis of Townsend’s kick, combined with Canberra’s dismay, led to more tension, this time between Feldt and Wighton, who went back to back in the air as Rapana booted the kickoff out on the full. After a near-perfect night Cotter lost the ball early in the restart thanks to CHN’s first statement since passing an HIA, and yet Starling’s return from the bench was less spectacular, as he tapped forward a Wighton offload, a sorry sequel to the guts he had shown with the game’s best try.

Nobody in the Canberra lineup had kicked a field goal and they wouldn’t get a chance tonight either, as Nanai took the tackle at the end of the next set, leaving the visitors with the whole length of the field to traverse on their last possession, only for them to settle into a sequence of one-out plays, before CHN muscled his way up the right edge and popped back the second phase to set up a sweep to the other wing. Yet this was a short-lived moment of creativity, dissolving into a fairly shapeless set that submerged the Raiders back in the opening quarter.

The last note was a chip from Wighton and while Rapana got hands to it, he batted it forward.  As if making up for not getting to Feldt’s tap-back, Hiku darted to collect it and actually tried to make his way through the line, but was halted by one final wall of green and white defence. It was a heroic start to North Queensland’s year, both in the consistency of their first stanza and the courage with which they held on after the sheds, although they’ll be looking for a much bigger win margin when they rock up at Suncorp to take on Brisbane on Friday evening.