NRL round 9 action gets under way on Thursday with the Sydney Roosters heading to North Queensland to take on the Cowboys at Queensland Country Bank Stadium.

Round 8 saw one of the games of the season thus far when the Sydney Rooster took on the Melbourne Storm. With 10mins left to play the Roosters held a 10-point lead that quickly evaporated with the Storm running in two quick tries to Jerome Hughes and Pat Momirovski. Trailing by 2 Half Kyle Flanagan kicked the equalizing penalty with under two mins left and Keary kicked what looked to be the match winning field goal with less than a minute remaining before it was stolen right under their feet by some brilliant Storm play.

The North Queensland Cowboys got rocked in their last outing, a 42-4 defeat against heavyweights the Parramatta Eels. Eels winger Sivo destroyed the Cowboys Right hand side defence crossing for 4 relatively easy tries. This will no doubt be a big focus for the Cowboys heading into this contest. Josh McGuire got through a lot of work in the middle with a game high 59 tackles while Jason Taumalolo led the team in run metres with 167.

The Sydney Roosters have been hit really hard over the past two weeks with injuries and will have the depth of their roster well and truly tested. I feel like this is a good spot for the Cowboys to cover getting over 2 converted tries.

AUTHOR: Nathan Laughton

Nathan is an Expert on All of the best of Sports Down Under