North Queensland Toyota Cowboys second rower Gavin Cooper is confident a brilliant week on the training paddock will help the side kick their season into gear.
Cooper believes the side has produced one of their best training weeks of the season heading into Friday night's clash with the Panthers in Bathurst.
"I won't say it was perfect, but it was a really good week of training. There was a lot of energy and intensity and a lot of the good stuff we saw from the weekend, we just need more of it," he said.
"We need to be training well with the position we're in at the moment.
We've shown in patches throughout this year we can still play good footy, but those patches are very small and aren't happening often enough.
"If we can control the ball and get back into the groove that we're in when we're playing well the results will come and the way we've trained this week I'm confident we'll find it."
Cooper, 32, also hit back at critics who have claimed the Cowboys look "old" in 2018.
"We don't come in here on Monday mornings and watch the tape and think we look old. We look at the opportunities we missed and we missed a whole lot against Canberra last weekend," he said.
"There were decisions we could have made to put us in a better position at the end of the game and hopefully we can learn from that leading into this weekend."
After Friday's clash with Penrith, the Cowboys will travel to Sydney for a mini-camp to prepare for the Round 10 clash with the Wests Tigers.
Cooper said the side would use the entire 10-day trip as an opportunity to bond as a squad.
"We're heading away for two weeks for a little bit of a camp. It will be good to get away and enjoy each other's company, but it will be a whole lot better if we can come back with two wins," he said.
"We're looking forward to getting out and playing a bit of bush footy. It's pretty fresh out at Bathurst at the moment so we'll pack our winter woollies and get down there and try and get the job done."
