Despite the nice 24-10 win over the Panthers in Round 23, the Cowboys are done for 2019.

With just eight wins in 22 games to be 14th on the ladder, they're playing for pride, and if they want, for the future of their coach.

Paul Green is left alone up there in North Queensland. He's away from the prying eyes and probing questions of the Sydney media and isn't the talk of the town quite like Anthony Seibold and the Broncos are in Brisbane.

Nevertheless, the NRL is a results-driven business.

Green manages to escape criticism way up there in North Queensland. News of another poor season will trickle down eventually, though.

A Dragons collapse, somehow worse than their own, allowed the Cowboys to embark on their fairytale run to the Grand Final in 2017. Without the Dragons playing their part in 2017, the Cowboys would otherwise be missing the finals for the third consecutive season in 2019.

He's managed to dine-out on that Grand Final run for two years now, but Green's time at the Cowboys will surely come into question if he can't dig them out of this hole in 2020.

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2019 Attack

The Cowboys are in possession of the second-worst attack in the NRL scoring 15.8 points per game as the regular season comes to a close.

Despite playing with Queensland and Kangaroo representative Michael Morgan in the halves, the Cowboys have struggled mightily to manufacture points.

Their 28.1 tackles in the opposition 20-metre line ranks 8th in the competition. It's not as though they're short of opportunities to attack in good ball sets. How could they? Jason Taumalolo is all but certain to get his side up the field with his 204.8 running metres second in the NRL and most for all forwards.

However, most of those tackles end with a premeditated and predictable shift that has all too obviously centred around Scott Drinkwater since his arrival at the club in Round 15.

The Cowboys were poor in attack long before the 22-year old turned up in Townsville, though.

Sure, having John Asiata forced into the halves isn't ideal. Jake Clifford has been up and down this season, too. But the Cowboys still only manage 15.1 points per game in the 17 matches Morgan has played in 2019.

Injuries and form have contributed to the regular turnover of barely serviceable outside backs. Meanwhile, Green is played Coen Hess in the centres far longer than his performances justified and he was exposed more than ever in the season-ending loss to the Knights.

The big backrower was no chance of keeping up with Kalyn Ponga here:

Simply blaming a handful of injuries won't do for the Cowboys. Their attack doesn't scare anybody and the man in charge hasn't helped. They'll need a lot more than Valentine Holmes to change things in 2020.

2019 Defence

Like the Dragons, one side of the field can't contain the opposition attack.

Only the Titans have conceded more tries down the left side of the field than the Cowboys' 32 this season.

Like the Dragons, the turnover in players occupying the positions on that side hasn't helped their cause. Justin O'Neill, Jordan Kahu, Tom Opacic, Enari Tuala, Mitchell Dunn and Hess have all spent time in the left-side centre position. None have been able to stay there long enough to iron out a defensive partnership with Gavin Cooper.

As a result, the Cowboys have conceded 21.3 points per game in 2019 - only the Titans, Dragons and Warriors concede more.

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Required Tweaks & Adjustments

The Cowboys are desperate for some quality in the outside backs.

They have too many bit-players.

Kahu, Opacic and Drinkwater - three of their first-choice five outside backs - are ultimately castoffs from other clubs. At the very least, they were surplus to requirements and not good enough to make their old side. 

On their own in a backline boasting more talent, you can argue their place and put them down as serviceable salary cap fillers. Together, well, the results speak for themselves at the moment. 

Meanwhile, Nene Macdonald lasted five games at the club, Murray Taulagi hasn't been given much of a chance, Gideon Gela-Mosby has been given too many, Ben Hampton can't stay on the field, and when he's there, can't stay in one spot, and Javid Bowen hasn't developed into anything beyond a reserve grade player in his four seasons at the Cowboys.

Outside of Kyle Feldt, there isn't a player any other club would be particularly interested in.

The Cowboys need more than a few tweaks and adjustments. They need an overhaul of personnel on the edges. Lucky for them, Bowen, Hampton, Kahu, Gela-Mosby and Tuala are all off-contract at the end of the season. 

Outlook for 2020

Sorry, Cowboys fans.

It's not good.

With the squad the way it is and their current position on the ladder, the Cowboys could well finish 2020 holding the wooden spoon.

They've got the superstar talent and a few representative players in the pack, but the backline isn't significantly improving anytime soon. You'd be hard-pressed to point out a worse back-five than what the Cowboys will send out next season. The wing position has never been more important with the yardage they're asked to generate and North Queensland doesn't have the cattle. 

The million-dollar men in Morgan and Taumalolo can only do so much. In Morgan's case, that isn't a lot at the moment. However, a lot of that is down to the tools he's being forced to work with. 

The game is moving beyond the crash and bash up the field and block-heavy structures the Cowboys run with in good ball sets. As the rest of the competition adjusts, the Cowboys try to force Cooper through a gap that isn't there one more time. 

Coach Green has his work cut out for him in 2020. He needs to revise the way his side approaches the game, in particular, in the way they attack. Unless he can turn the Cowboys attack on its head and gets something out of this lacklustre backline, he might be out of the job before the end of the season.

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