The 2021 NRL season was a miserable one for North Queensland Cowboys supporters. It just seemed like nothing went right for the club.
The one bright spark for the club going into the season was that they had one of the all time greats playing for the club in Jason Taumalolo. Yet by seasons end Taumalolo seemed out of favour at the club, playing fewer minutes and having a bit of a strange injury situation that saw him basically put on ice for the second half of the year.
If the Cowboys want my advice, I’d play Taumalolo more in 2022, and if its advice you’re after check out www.mycasinoadviser.com for some really solid advice!
He is on big money at the Cowboys and my feeling is that if he wanted to move on, and the Cowboys wouldn’t be on the hook for any of his salary, they’d be happy to let him walk. Thats a strange situation for a once in a generation player.
Taumalolo turns 29 this season, he is in the prime of his career, and honestly, I think if any club gets offered to bring him on board at almost any price, you clear the decks and get him on board.
If the Cowboys are smart, they’ll hold onto Taumalolo for dear life! Build around him. he has years of great football left in him. There is nothing to suggest he won’t be playing into his mid 30’s. That means they could build a new team around the games most dominant forward for the next 6 years at least!
One of the big problems the Cowboys have is their poor use of their salary cap space.
The signing of Valentine Holmes has been a disaster. He is on big money, star fullback money, and its clear he is just a good, but injury prone winger. They’ve compounded that by signing Chad Townsend for 2022, who is coming off the absolute worst season of his career and who is also on a sizeable deal.
Handing the playmaking keys to Scott Drinkwater, who is erratic at best, has been a mistake. On top of that they released Jake Clifford last season and he immediately became a key part of the Newcastle Knights lineup.
If the Cowboys don’t sort out their player recruitment, which has been abysmal for years now, they are going no where fast. Their player development is not too bad, but every single club needs to be able to bring extra talent into their lineup to have a chance of making the NRL finals.
Unfortunately for Cowboys supporters I think 2022 is going to be a really rough season. I would be surprised if they don’t finish in the bottom 3 teams this season.
How that stands with a player of Taumalolo’s caliber is anyones guess. Unfortunately, I think this will be his last season at the club.
