Cowboys forward Coen Hess is all aboard the Heilum Luki train, saying the destructive backrower would not look out of place in an Origin jersey and could provide ‘x-factor’ for the Queensland side.
Hess – who this season has also been putting in his own impressive efforts that would be doing his chances of a Maroons recall no harm – told NRL.com after North Queensland’s dominant win against the Dragons that it was good to see a fully-fit Luki back and firing.
“Yeah, he's a specimen and credit to him, he played well,” Hess said.
“I reckon Luki could bring a bit of x-factor off the bench for sure.
“He sort of came of age tonight. Us as Cowboys know what he's capable of and I'm just happy for him that he showed us tonight what he can do.
“He obviously had a disrupted season early on with injuries, but hopefully he can string a few games together and push for a spot, so I'd love to see him there for sure.”
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Despite some early struggles and inconsistency in the early stages of this season, the Cowboys in the past two weeks with their back-to-back wins against St George Illawarra and the Roosters at Magic Round have shown just what they can do in a return to the type of form that saw the unheralded side storm into the finals last year.
Hess admitted a switch from being the hunters to the hunted, as well as being hit hard by injuries and suspensions, had all contributed to the club’s shaky start this year.
“That’s probably what it comes down to, I know last year we were extremely blessed,” Hess said. “I think we only had one or two injuries for the whole year, so you have years where injuries are a part of it and hopefully, touch wood, we've sort of weathered the early storm.
“We'll get some cavalry back over the coming weeks and then I guess the beauty of it is, the competition is so tight this season, so it's only one or two wins that separates third from about 10th, so that's the luxury of it all.
“If we get some troops back and make a bit of a run, then it doesn't really matter how you start, it’s about how you finish.”
Always a straight shooter, coach Todd Payten spoken about needing to change some elements of his coaching and preparation of his team week-to-week, with Hess saying the players had all responded to his messaging.
“It's probably a bit of what we did last year … our game plan is really simple, we put a lot of effort into line speed and trying to slowly win that field position battle and then we've got enough attacking flare in our backline so we can score points if we just park them down there for long enough,” Hess said.
“It's more so about getting back to that.
“Chaddy (co-captain Chad Townsend) made up a theme, ‘win the game early, score the points late’, so it's more so just getting a bit back to that sort of philosophy and way of thinking.”
While his own form has been outstanding this year, an improvement on his 2022 which had him managing an ongoing, but “tolerable” neck shoulder problem, Hess downplayed his own chances of pulling on a Maroons jersey again this year.
However, a passionate Queenslander, Hess said Origin did remain a dream, but even if we wasn’t playing, he would be just like any other Maroons fan on game night, cheering on the team.
“Yeah, of course, that's every kids dream you could say,” Hess said.
“But it's something that you don't really think about in the season, it's more if you get picked, it's a reflection of the start of the season that you've had.
“I guess probably this year in particular, it would probably be the hardest decision that Queensland’s ever had, so whoever gets picked (will have a job to do). If I'm there, I’m there, but if I'm not, I'll be cheering and you won’t find anyone cheering louder than me.”
The Cowboys will take on Wests Tigers this weekend.