BY CURTIS WOODWARD

@woodward_curtis

Our rose-coloured glasses remember the North Queensland Cowboys rising from the cellar once Johnathan Thurston got to the club in 2005.

But that isn’t quite how it happened.

Real history says it was the laconic coach Graham Murray that turned the hapless Cowboys around and got them to the preliminary final in 2004 with a halves combination of Nathan Fien and David Myles.

That Cowboys side finished the regular season in 7th – won two straight sudden death matches and gained their way into the penultimate weekend of the season.

Sadly the beloved Murray – who is no longer with us – still doesn’t get the credit he deserves.

Before ‘Muz’, the Cowboys struggled under a frustrated Tim Sheens. There were rumours players were ordered, if approaching Sheens, to call him ‘Coach’.

Murray Hurst spent two years after Sheens nursing a squad that wasn’t good enough.

Then came Graham Murray.

His character, and ability to have a beer with his boys after a game, suited the roster. It also helped he could manage that part of the relationship with the skill to get the best out of his players.

So the Cowboys had Murray.

Then they got the final piece of the puzzle… Thurston.

With all due respect to Paul Green and the 2015 premiership – the club needs to forget it.

It all starts again.

For as amazing as 2015 was, the Cowboys and all Green’s intensity was only going to slide the Townsville club one way. So much went into 2015 that it simply wasn’t going to repeat itself with the same ingredients.

And so it went, on and on, until Green was tapped on the shoulder.

So where do the Cowboys go from here?

It needs to be a long-term plan.

They need the right coach to re-build the Cowboys and not expect a premiership straight away.

Is this the forgotten footage that proves Parramatta are playing for penalties?

After all, it took them twenty years to win their first.

It won’t take them nearly as long next time around but the worst thing they could do is plan short-term. The Cowboys aren’t a club that can think anything other than about four or five years down the track.

The next coach may not win them a premiership but it’s vital they pick the right coach for right now. It’s his job to build the squad, build confidence and anything from there is a bonus.

Cowboys fans need to be patient.

They should be confident and need to believe in the club’s process.

But patience is everything for North Queensland.

You never know what’s around the corner.

@woodward_curtis