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The rise of Scott Drinkwater

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In case you were wondering why there wasn’t a newsletter last week, I’ll be honest with you. Origin-affected footy has ruined me, I’ve taken the opportunity over the last couple of weeks to pull back and refresh, and with the Ashes on I’ve done some stuff over on the main website as a bit of a cleanse.

If you’re interested in Ashes pieces and podcasts go to the Beyond The Fence website or check out Beyond The Fence wherever you get your podcasts.

That’s enough of a segue.

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The North Queensland Cowboys came into 2023 rolling off an unexpected season that saw them fall at the hands of the Parramatta Eels in a preliminary final. After the disaster that was 2021, a season that saw them finish 15th, to win 10 more games and improve the ol’ differential by a casual 560 points was an outcome even the most one-eyed north Queenslander would’ve had trouble justifying in the summer.

And yet, having tasted the sweet elixir of success and fended off accusations of a soft draw and #Fraudwatch2022, the Cowboys could be forgiven for expecting more of the same with a settled roster and another year under the belt of the still-green Todd Payten.

It doesn’t take much for people on the internet to feel validated, but the sluggishness with which the Cowboys lumbered out of the blocks had the smug among us crowing about how they never truly believed and 2022 was nothing more than the brightest flash in the shallowest pan.

Unable to string any sort of consistent footy together, it would be polite to call the Round 12 demolition job at Leichhardt at the hands of the languishing Wests Tigers rock bottom. Rock bottom implies the only way is up. Losing 66-18 to the team most likely to end the season as the wooden spooners is crashing through the rock bottom layer head first, eating a mouthful of gravel and dirt in the process.

For more on that game check out this newsletter.

Questions were asked, souls were searched, red pens were drawn from their holsters and slashed across papyrus by everyone’s favourite fifty point enthusiast. The Cowboys were a humorous footnote in the Wests Tigers’ greatest night since a certain springtime evening eighteen years ago.

There’s no mincing words, it was embarrassing, end of analysis.

Since that harrowing night in Sydney’s inner west, the Cowboys had a choice to make. They could accept their fate and their label as one season wonders, or they could do something about it and prove last season wasn’t a feu de paille.

North Queensland have quality players up and down their roster. Tom Dearden, Murray Taulagi, Valentine Holmes and Jeremiah Nanai have all played for Queensland, the latter three even travelling to the World Cup with the Kangaroos, while Reece Robson made his Origin debut this season for New South Wales, and Jason Taumalolo is still one of the most damaging forwards in the game.

The straw that stirs the North Queensland martini though, is Scott Drinkwater.

Since emerging on the Melbourne Storm fullback conveyor belt as a floppy haired 21 year old back in 2018, completing his Queensland Cup internship like Nicho Hynes and Ryan Papenhuyzen, hopes were high for the Central Coast product.

In one electric appearance for the Storm in 2018, Drinkwater showed the burst of speed, the vision, the special glimpses that explained why Melbourne took a chance on an undersized half that had trouble making rep sides as a teenager.

A torn pectoral and the emergence of a certain Ryan Papenhuyzen in 2019 would hinder Drinkwater’s path to first grade in Melbourne, so he was granted an immediate release to sign with the Cowboys halfway through the year, immediately slotting into the fullback position to allow Michael Morgan back into the halves, who had assumed the position after a revolving door of Jordan Kahu and Te Maire Martin.

In a rough year for the Cowboys (they would finish 14th), Drinkwater would provide a glimmer of hope for what was to come, forming combinations with Michael Morgan and Jake Clifford, and providing that attacking injection that saw him tipped to eventually succeed Billy Slater at the Storm.

Drinkwater, despite his obvious and incandescent talent, has always been a somewhat polarising player for a few reasons. For instance, earlier in his career there was always some discourse about whether he was indeed a fullback or more suited to playing in the halves.

Why the debate? His defence.

There’s a saying in the NBA where it doesn’t matter if you score 130 points per game if you allow 140 every night. Obviously the numbers are inflated and the point is so exceedingly obvious it smacks you in the face, but the thinking was it didn’t matter how good Drinkwater was in attack because of his sheer inability to defend in the line.

With Valentine Holmes wanting to play fullback and a young Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow in the shadows too, there was pressure on Drinkwater to either make that fullback spot his own or prove he could play in the line. It’s fair to say that the early returns were mixed.

For a while it did seem like the Cowboys didn’t really know what to do with Drinkwater. During 2020 and 2021 he played predominantly at five eighth with a handful of games at the back sprinkled in, coinciding with two bottom four finishes for the Cowboys.

Drinkwater made the permanent switch to fullback in 2022, and while I’m not suggesting that move alone was causation for the Cowboys march up the ladder, the balance it gave the side by allowing a more creative presence at the back, coupled with more robust halves in Dearden and the newly-recruited Chad Townsend, meant the Cowboys were transformed from misshapen talent into a cohesive unit able to take advantage of whatever schedule quirks they were afforded.

On his day, Drinkwater is one of the silkiest ball players in the NRL, at any position. This season alone he’s atop the NRL’s try assist tally with 21, one ahead of Cody Walker, despite missing three games through suspension earlier in the year.

Drinkwater is able to play out the back on either edge, and possesses a soft attacking kicking game close to the line, two traits that are a luxury for any fullback in the league, but what sets apart Drinkwater is his vision and willingness to try the spectacular.

Take his game winning try against Penrith. Origin-affected or not, the Cowboys start to the season meant that they were playing in big, must win games in June, well ahead of schedule.

Off a barnstorming run from Taumalolo, the Cowboys set up for a field goal 20 metres out with under two minutes left in golden point. A loopy pass from dummy half and good Penrith linespeed meant Chad Townsend was swamped, throwing a panicked pass to Dearden, who immediately gets rid back to Drinkwater, standing behind the ruck as the emergency option.

Running off sheer instinct, Drinkwater doesn’t snap a rushed field goal attempt under less than ideal circumstances, even though the risk of a seven tackle set was somewhat mitigated by the time in the game. What does make this play extra special was it was still only tackle 1. Instead of a settler, Drinkwater went for the jugular.

With dazzling footwork and that aforementioned burst speed that’s so killer in broken field play, Drinkwater immedately skips back to the right where the Penrith line is fragmented.

He evades the onrushing Sunia Turuva, skips around Jaeman Salmon, burns Scott Sorensen down the edge, holds the ball out to freeze Tyrone Peachey, who is caught between rushing in and staying with the winger, and glides past a last ditch cover effort from Mitch Kenny to send Townsville into delirium.

Vision, instinct and a touch of fleet-footed brilliance.

Drinkwater has been rewarded with his scintillating form over the last two months for the Cowboys, named as part of New South Wales’ extended squad for Game III, although his duties will largely be as a camp body to soak up the experience alongside fellow camp first-timer Spencer Leniu.

It’s just reward for Drinkwater, who was living with the shadow cast over him by a brilliant start to his Dolphins career from Tabuai-Fidow, the man jettisoned to allow Drinkwater to shine at the back (the Cowboys could probably have just kept Hamiso in the centres but that’s another story).

The Cowboys are timing their run. They gave themselves a lot of work to do after a terrible start, but their last month of football has given credence to the theory that they can challenge and make the top end of town sweat from the lower reaches of the eight.

Putting 45 on Melbourne, an exhilarating golden point triumph over Penrith, smashing South Sydney and exacting the ultimate revenge on the Wests Tigers to the tune of 74 to blot, the biggest single season turnaround between two teams in NRL history (don’t fact check this it feels right).

The demons have been exorcised, the water is flowing again, let Scott cook.

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A FAVOUR TO ASK

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