Origin quartet back for the Cowboys

The North Queensland Cowboys will be strengthened by the return of their State of Origin contingent for their round 19 NRL clash with Melbourne Storm at AAMI Park on Saturday evening.

Coach Neil Henry today named a 19-man squad to face the competition leaders with co-captains Matthew Scott and Johnathan Thurston, centre Brent Tate and prop James Tamou returning after missing the round 17 loss to the NZ Warriors in Auckland.

Tamou and Scott will start up front with Ashton Sims and Ricky Thorby dropping back to interchange roles, while Tate is back at right centre and Thurston will resume at five-eighth.

Kalifa Faifai Loa and Joel Riethmuller drop out of the squad that faced the Warriors.

A decision on the make-up of the four-man bench will be made later in the week.

Henry said he was confident halfback Ray Thompson would be fit to play after having daily physio on the shoulder he injured in the first half against the Warriors.

“He trained yesterday in the wet and he got through it okay,” the coach said.

“We’re expecting him to be okay and we have the back-up there in Michael Morgan who’s been named on the extended bench.”

Kickoff on Saturday will be at 5.30pm.

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North Queensland Cowboys: 1 Matthew Bowen, 2 Ashley Graham, 3 Brent Tate 4 Kane Linnett, 5 Antonio Winterstein, 6 Johnathan Thurston ©, 7 Ray Thompson, 8 Matthew Scott ©, 9 Aaron Payne, 10 James Tamou, 11 Gavin Cooper, 12 Glenn Hall, 13 Dallas Johnson. Interchange: 14 Anthony Mitchell, 15 Ricky Thorby, 16 Ashton Sims, 17 Jason Taumalolo, 18 Michael Morgan, 19 Scott Bolton (two to be omitted)

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