Payten has no doubt Cowboys can win title
Todd Payten says he has long been convinced North Queensland can win the premiership, with history showing his Cowboys' grand final chances have sky-rocketed with their win over Cronulla.
Saturday night's thrilling 32-30 golden point extra-time victory booked the Cowboys their first home preliminary final in the club's history, with the added bonus of a week off before the match.
There, they will face the victors of next week's semi-final between Parramatta and Canberra, arguably now on the preferable side of the draw and away from minor-premiers Penrith.
But the biggest factor working in the Cowboys' advantage is the reward of a home final in Townsville in the heat of September.
The Cowboys are seven-from-seven in home finals, and hold an impressive 18-3 record in Townsville in all September matches in the club's history.
Not that Payten needed any more convincing of his team's credentials, after what he labelled as one of the best wins he'd been part of as either a player or coach.
"I was already convinced (we could win the competition). And I know the players believe it," Payten said.
"We've still got some work to do. And we're going to need some time to rest and recover over this next little period.
"But I'm very fortunate that we're going home in front of our home crowd and playing in the prelim to get in the grand final, which we deserved to be in."
Payten's justified belief is even more remarkable when considering that North Queensland finished 15th last year, before bringing in new halves Chad Townsend and Tom Dearden this year.
But Payten said the biggest difference in his team this year was their belief, as exhibited by their come-from-behind wins over Manly and Wests Tigers before recovering from eight points down with eight minutes to play on Saturday.
"It's a number of things really, I know when we get our attacking game right, we play a little bit different than most other teams," Payten said.
"We've always felt from early on the season we showed some character around the way that we compete.
"The message that we've been trying to sell as coaches for well over 12 months, it became self-fulfilling in the early part of the season.
"The players believe it, and they're the most important ones.
"I can tell them that we've got plenty of talent and plenty of character, but they're the ones who've have got to believe it."
