Cowboys coach Paul Green says the unavailability of his star Johnathan Thurston will be no excuse should his side fall to the Dragons tomorrow.
Thurston is sidelined with a calf injury suffered in Saturday’s shock 26-16 loss to Wests in Townsville.
The Dragons are soaring at the top of the table and are the competition’s best attacking side.
Their strong form was personified by an easy 35-10 win over an-inform Manly at Brookvale last Saturday.
"We fancy our chances, you've got to be careful when there's talk about no pressure, there's still that internal pressure to perform amongst our team and that's the expectation that we set on each other," Green said.

"You've just got to be careful in those situations that we don't give ourselves a bit of an out… We feel we've prepared well and we're going to give it a crack.
"Yes there are different things to consider, in terms of prep it makes it a little bit harder, recovery is harder, but it's how you play [that matters].
"Their forwards are getting them down the field very well, it's pretty simple what they're doing but it's not easy to stop.
"They're full of confidence, so [Gareth] Widdop and [Josh] McCrone and those guys are getting off the back of that really good go forward.”
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