The creativity and growth in maturity of North Queensland fullback Scott Drinkwater loom as integral to his side’s late charge to play finals football.
That’s the view of coach Todd Payten ahead of the away clash with Manly on Saturday night when Drinkwater - 18th man for NSW on Wednesday night - will line up in the No.1 jersey.
The Cowboys are on 22 points and just outside of the top eight after winning their last four games.
“A lot of our creativity comes in and around Scott,” Payten told AAP.
“I marvel at how quick he is at training. I don’t think people understand how fast he is on his feet.
“He is covering more distance than anyone at training at a higher speed, and he sees the game quicker than most.
“Scott is really engaged and has been for a long time now. He is leading our team in a lot of our meetings and doing a lot of talking…and he never misses the mark with a lot of his messages to spine players and team members across the group.”
Drinkwater, 26, missed three games due to suspension early in the season but is on a roll now. He has 21 try assists in 14 games in 2023, a career high, and has scored seven tries.
The Cowboys missed blockbusting forward Luciano Leilua due to an NRL stand down, co-captain Jason Taumalolo (injury) and Queensland second-rower Jeremiah Nanai (suspension) for a large chunk of the opening 15 rounds. Maroons winger Murray Taulagi also missed three games with injury.
“That has hurt our continuity but we had some players come back five weeks ago and what we have done well in that period is control the ball and competed on kicks in transition,” Payten said.
“That is what we have built our game on and it is effective.
“There were moments where I challenged some individuals and units within our team and they have responded.
“I thought last year’s World Cup was a bit of a hindrance for us in particular. We had a big contingent in that and only getting them after Christmas meant we only started the season slow in a lot of ways.
“We have fought our way out of it. We have got eight games to go and we will be playing some good teams, and we are still not in the eight. So we have got to continue to work hard and improve as a team.”
The Cowboys had strong wins over premiership heavyweights Melbourne, Penrith and South Sydney in their recent winning streak.
“It proved to me that we have got plenty of ability and we are a good team when we are only playing one opposition,” Payten said.
“When we are playing the opposition and playing ourselves as well it is too hard, and we did that too often the first half of the year.
“If we get our game right we know we are hard to handle.”
