North Queensland Cowboys head coach Todd Payten has confirmed he will consider making changes to his side as poor defensive efforts become a trend over the opening two months of the 2024 NRL season.
The Cowboys may have made a bright start to the new campaign, at one point sitting on top of the ladder, the Townsville-based club have gone on to lose three of their last four.
A Round 4 loss to the Broncos started the rot, conceding 38 points, before they lost in Round 6 to the Parramatta Eels, conceding 27 points to a side without Mitchell Moses.
Sunday's effort against the Sharks was the worst of the lot for Payten's side though, with the Cowboys conceding seven tries and 42 points.
The coach slammed his side's defensive effort post-game, agreeing it had become a trend.
“Yep, absolutely. It has been and we have spoken about it... we have beaten some teams in the first months of the competition doing that,” Payten said during his post-match press conference.
“You can't do that against the top four or six or eight teams, that's not going to win you enough matches or any matches against the bigger teams.”
Payten admitted changes may be on the way, confirming he will be looking at his side this week after their losing streak which has flipped a positive start to the season upside down.
The Cowboys went into halftime 24-0 down, and Payten said he told his team at halftime he wanted to see fight, only for the club to concede early.
“I just wanted to see what we had as a group, see some fight that we would show, I spoke about the importance of staying connected as a team,” Payten said.
“Then, you know, playing together. But again, six points early in the second half really hurts in the way it was scored.”
The Cowboys sit eighth on the ladder with a four and three record at the end of Round 7, and clash with the Penrith Panthers next weekend.