In saying nothing, Michael Maguire said it all. The Rabbitohs just needed to win. Didn't matter how. And in one of those dollars-too-hard-to-turn-down scenarios, it so happened to turn out they were playing a home game against the Cowboys in far north Queensland.
Full of praise for Cairns and the community, Maguire was asked would he come back again to play against the Cowboys?
![On fire: Ethan Lowe, right, reacts to Coen Hess' try.](http://web.archive.org./web/20171129132003im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/c/d/b/4/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxc8ba.png/1500198563342.jpg)
"No comment," he fired back.
Which just about summed up his mood after the South Sydney's season officially tipped over the edge, wilting 23-10 against a Johnathan Thurston-less Cowboys at Barlow Park on Sunday.
![Familiar feeling: Sam Burgess after a Cowboys try.](http://web.archive.org./web/20171129132003im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/c/d/b/1/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxc8ba.png/1500198563342.jpg)
Maguire's currency is wins and losses. He could have thought of 14 other teams he would have liked to have parachuted into the tropics rather than the Cowboys.
So scratch the Rabbitohs from the murky finals picture. But the Cowboys? They couldn't, could they? Not without Thurston. Throw in Matt Scott. And seemingly without any hope. But just maybe this is the year they prove they're far more than a one-man team. One capable of going deep into the finals, maybe even to the first Sunday in October.Â
"You've got no choice," Cowboys coach Paul Green said of Thurston's absence. "It is what it is. Yes, we'd love to have him playing. But the reality is he's not.
"You do need to move on and pretty quickly, particularly in this competition. If anything that's one thing I've got to give our team a wrap for. As devastated as we have been that his season is finished we've got our head around it. And everyone is looking forward to the challenge ahead of us."
Since Thurston went down after State of Origin II the Cowboys have beaten the Panthers, Raiders and Rabbitohs - all three languishing outside the top eight - and will fancy their chances of making it four straight against a struggling Warriors next week. From there, who knows?
This win required just a little strength rather than any subtlety from the Cowboys, who have won three straight games without Thurston for the first time in their history.
Their hearts would have skipped a beat when Michael Morgan, one of three Cowboys backing up from Queensland's Origin triumph on Wednesday night, stayed down after a Jason Clark hit early in the second half.
But it was only temporary as North Queensland kept pace in the top four race and remain just four points shy of minor premiership favourites Melbourne despite playing most of the season to date without their talisman.
"Since he had a chat with Cooper Cronk at the Anzac Test he came back and asked Greeny for a bit more clarity about what he wanted from him and he's taken that with both hands," Cowboys skipper Gavin Cooper said of Morgan.
"He's really led the boys around. For a long time Morgo has been one of the standout players, but I don't think he's got any mirrors in his house and I don't think he believed it himself."
Green joked he struggled to see for large parts of the match from his vantage point owing to thirsty patrons lining up for the bar. Maguire would have welcomed that problem given the bungling display after they bolted to an early six-point lead.
"You can tell I'm burning about the game because I know what we have in that change room and we're not achieving that at the moment," he said. "The boys need to find a way to find those performances ... because what we did out there today doesn't represent us."
Added captain Sam Burgess: "We let in a few soft tries on our line which at this level is not good enough. We just didn't defend well enough. We've just got to get better holding the ball."
Jake Granville scored, laid on another two tries and rattled in defence for the Cowboys, who were equally sloppy in the second half of a game which failed to reach any great heights. But North Queensland is still in with a fighter's chance. Which many thought they wouldn't have nigh on a month ago when the four walls around Cowboys HQ were supposed to be coming down around them.
"If you look at the team at the start of the year compared to where we are now .. our last eight weeks has been really consistent and we're playing some good footy," Green said. "I still think there's plenty of improvement left in us which is the pleasing thing.
"Now that we've got the Origin period out of the way we can start knuckling down and working on some of those combinations and hopefully keep improving."
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