North Queensland coach rapt with fighting spirit

North Queensland coach Neil Henry says the fighting spirit shown by his side in the opening rounds has put them in good stead for the long, hard NRL season ahead.

For the second week in a row the Cowboys staged a comeback, beating Penrith 28-20 at Dairy Farmers Stadium on Saturday night after coming back to lose narrowly to Brisbane in the opening round.

With tough games against unbeaten St George Illawarra and Gold Coast in the coming weeks, Henry says his side has shown the resolve to indicate they will be competitive in every match they play.

"I think we're building some confidence about our ability to come back," Henry said.

"We're talking about being down by 12 points twice in that game at 14-2 and 20-8 and to come back and hold them out late in the game with a couple of repeat sets, I'm very happy with our players' resolve.

"We needed to have a bit of resolve with our defence and we have that."

The result comes after the Cowboys launched a stirring turnaround against the Broncos to come from 24-0 down to equalise the scores before a long-range Denan Kemp try killed off their comeback.

Henry said there was no panic in sheds at halftime against the Panthers despite being placed in a similar position again.

"We knew that if we could get a 50 per cent share of the possession we had the attack to do it," he said.

"It was a very good second half and we talked about it at halftime, we said 'we're within striking distance'.

"If we completed our sets a bit better and threw a bit at them I thought we could score points, we just needed a bit of field position and we got that."

The game also announced the return of Carl Webb from a calf injury, the barnstorming prop starting for Matt Scott on his 29th birthday.

Henry said he was pleased with the efforts of the former Maroons enforcer and also praised Willie Mason, who showed signs of big improvement in his second game at his new club.

"I thought (Webb) was good, he had some strong carries there.

"He worked pretty hard in the middle there.

"(Mason) is a handful when you find him and he's willing to get out there and work.

"We put him in the middle there and rolled up his sleeves and had a couple of good carries so it's good for him too.

"I'm pretty happy with our pack."

Aaron Payne (ribs), Luke O'Donnell (ankle), Matt Scott (ankle) and John Williams (knee) carried niggles into the game but emerged unscathed while Ty Williams has a shoulder complaint and will be assessed during the week.

- AAP