North Queensland coach Paul Green feels the Cowboys' performances against the NRL's best is an indication of how close they are to turning their fortunes around.
In recent weeks the Cowboys have lost by a point to South Sydney and Melbourne, while the New Zealand Warriors needed a Herculean defensive effort to keep them at bay in their eventual 23-16 win on Friday night.
A round 14 defeat to Parramatta excepted, Green feels the Cowboys have shown enough to suggest a more successful second half of the season.
"We're so close against really good sides but unfortunately not close enough and that's the lesson we've got to take from it," Green said.
"You find a way to win when you're full of confidence.
"Given what's happened to us so far that's the tough part. You've got to fight hard but it's the NRL.
"Add a little bit of execution and don't drift out of the game when we did, we'll win more games than we lose for the rest of the year.
"(The) bottom line is we need to be better, we need to improve.
"There's some guys who are going through finding out what it's like in the NRL when you have to fight for everything."
The immediate future does not look like getting easier for the Cowboys, facing the ladder-leading Rabbitohs the week after Origin with news of a suspected ACL to young forward Sam Hoare, adding to the potential absence of Michael Morgan (suspected bicep).
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