Pressure is mounting on Todd Payten but the Cowboys coach isn’t letting it get to him despite another “disappointing” loss.
The Cowboys’ finals hopes are all but dashed after a 43-24 loss to the Dolphins on Thursday night. It was their third-straight loss and they could drop as low as second last on the ladder by the end of the weekend, pending other results.
It couldn’t have come at a worse time given the noise around Payten’s future at the club is getting louder.
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Cowboys CEO Jeff Reibel has publicly backed Payten but that hasn’t hosed down speculation that his job is on the line.
Payten, however, isn’t fazed by the noise.
“It’s part of the business I’m understanding of that,” he said when asked about the pressure.
“I’ve got myself to a point where I don’t give that any energy. It hasn’t always been the case, but through experience, my focus goes into getting this team right and what we’re doing day to day.
“And then when I’m away from here I’m getting better and being more present with my family. That’s my two focuses at the moment and that won’t change.”
The Cowboys were blown off the park in the first 50 minutes of the game, conceding 34 points. They clawed their way back into the contest with three tries in eight minutes but the damage was already done.
“Very disappointing seeing the points that we did (concede) in that first 40. It put us under far too much pressure and it was too much to chase down,” Payten said.
“We showed a heap of fight, got ourselves back in the game but a couple of costly moments with 12 or 13 minutes to go quelled anything that we were putting together.”
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The Cowboys have the worst defence in the competition, but their right edge in particular had a horror night against the Dolphins.
“It’s been for different reasons throughout the season. The bulk of possession has being going against us but tonight that’s not the reason, they’re just on different pages at different moments and it’s really costly,” Payten said when asked what’s going wrong defensively.
“When guys aren’t getting their job done, it’s one-on-one misses or misreads, they’re pouring through us.”
Payten was asked whether fatigue could’ve been a factor on Thursday night after a gritty game against the Bulldogs five days prior but he shot that down with a hard “no” before crediting co-captain Tom Dearden’s efforts.
“He’s played three games in eight days and he’s at the forefront of everything we’re doing so if anyone’s going to be tired it’s this bloke — not the 14 others that haven’t had the three games,” Payten said.
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Dearden backed up from Origin last week and then tried his heart out again on Thursday night. While he was “mentally disappointed,” he said physically “the body is feeling pretty good.”
The Cowboys now have to win every game if they want to give themselves a chance of playing finals.
Dearden, who won the Wally Lewis Medal for Player of the Origin Series, is confident they can do that.
“Certainly yeah. Our biggest challenge is just getting it together and being consistent with it,” he said.
“If you look at this season, we’ve had so many games where we’ve been up and down and patchy.
“I’ve got a lot of belief and I know if we can get it together and get it right we can get a strong run in the back end of the season.”
How?
“Just purposeful training, individual reps, individual coaching, unit coaching, team coaching… doing everything with purpose behind it,” Payten said.
