THINGS are not going to get any easier for North Queensland after their 24-18 loss to Cronulla at Dairy Farmers Stadium - the State of Origin series will see to that.

The Cowboys will have to play three of their next six games without halfback Johnathan Thurston and prop Carl Webb, who will be lost to the Queensland team. Second-rower Luke O'Donnell only came back against Cronulla after missing two games through injury, but he is bound to figure in the Origin series as well - for NSW. It just depends on whether the selectors want to bring him straight in for game one or wait to see him play a couple more games.

The teams North Queensland meet on those weekends before Origin games, when the representative players are unavailable for their club sides, are Manly, Wests Tigers and South Sydney.

The Tigers and the Rabbitohs are unlikely to be affected by Origin commitments and Manly may only lose fullback Brett Stewart, since the mail is strong that Sea Eagles prop Brent Kite, despite playing for Australia last Friday, will miss out on the NSW side.

The Cowboys have been doing it tough, with fullback Matt Bowen, winger Ty Williams and forwards Sione Faumuina, Matthew Scott and Shane Tronc on the injured list. Another forward, Jacob Lillyman, is back from suspension next weekend. Losing more stars on top of that will put the team under enormous pressure.

Factor in that the team's confidence must be down and you can see the potential for the Cowboys to do it very tough over the next couple of months.

North Queensland will get some respite from the byes they have after Origins I and III, but from rounds 10 to 17 their rep players will only be available to play for them twice - and one of those games will be away against Melbourne. The other will be at home versus Penrith.

Even allowing for the players they had out, the Cowboys were disappointing against Cronulla. Most other teams have been able to stick reasonably close to the Sharks in games this year and at least give themselves a chance of winning, but the Cowboys let them get away. Cronulla led 22-6 at half-time and 24-6 early in the second half.

North Queensland eventually came back with a couple of tries, but that pulled them up and in the end they got the result they had looked like getting from very early on in the match.

Sydney Roosters had Canberra beaten a long way from home, too. The Roosters had lost two straight before having the bye and had worked on the basics of not turning the ball over and communicating in defence. They were much sharper than they had been against Newcastle and St George Illawarra and the game was all but over by half-time, when they led 22-0.

It was a considerably less dynamic second half from the Roosters, who won 30-4, but perhaps that can be put down to them slipping into cruise control since they had done it so easily in the first half. They need to be prepared to crucify hapless opponents, though, if they want to win the competition.

The meeting of mid-range teams the Bulldogs and Penrith was decided as much by the unavailability of players as it was by those who actually took the field. The Bulldogs had some key players forced to withdraw and simply couldn't cover for them, clearing the way for the Panthers to storm to what was nevertheless an impressive 30-4 win.