North Queensland Cowboys fullback Lachlan Coote has conceded he has plenty of improving to do following his team's comprehensive loss to the Canterbury Bulldogs.
The custodian was recently dropped to play in the Intrust Super Cup with the Mackay Cutters to regain confidence on his injured hamstring.
"It was awesome to be out there, apart from the loss, the hammy's pulled up sweet and the body is feeling good," Coote said when reflecting on the 27-10 defeat against Canterbury.
The premiership-winning fullback said he didn't have any issues with playing in the second tier competition to regain his mojo.
"It was all good, obviously hammies are one of those things that you want to build confidence in and being thrown back in the deep end is pretty daunting, so I could see where 'Greeny' (coach Paul Green) was coming from in that sense," he said.
"It was good to actually go back and get a bit of confidence in the hamstring and in my own game as well."
Given the performance his side put in, Coote rated his own performance as 'acceptable' for his return to the NRL.
He went on to admit that he and his teammates have plenty to work on.
"Things went alright I guess…. I felt comfortable, the lungs were blowing a bit heavy, but that's always going to happen I guess," he said.
"With the way we're playing, the effort is there it's just those little things that aren't happening for us.
"There's no easy way out of this at the moment, we just have to knuckle down and go back to training and keep our standards high and hopefully it will turn for us."
While Coote is confident that the Cowboys will soon find that winning feeling, he admitted it needs to happen sooner rather than later.
"It will turn, we've just got to keep fighting hard and keep doing the little things," he said.
"It's not going to come easy, we need to grind games out and really fight hard for a win."
Match Highlights: Cowboys v Bulldogs - Round 6; 2018
