MICHAEL Ennis expects 2018 to slip away from the Cowboys after seeing the first sign that coach Paul Green has lost faith in the game plan that took his side to a premiership and a grand final over the last three years.

With Johnathan Thurston and Matt Scott returning to a side that lost last year’s decider and added Kangaroos prop Jordan McLean, Ennis and many other experts had pre-season expectations that North Queensland would be right back in the mix to add to the club’s sole premiership.

However, the Fox League commentator is now almost certain they will miss the playoffs as they come to terms with a horror 2-6 start that has buried their identity.

In a damning assessment of the Cowboys’ form, Ennis told Fox Sports he saw a lot of the 2017 Bulldogs in Green’s side.

“They remind me of Canterbury of last season. They start with a lot of energy, they look like they’ve had a great week of training and they’re just in hope that this is the week that it’s going to turn around,” Ennis said.

“The game starts and that energy deteriorates, they start second guessing themselves and they look like a side second guessing the game plan of Paul Green.

“And I think he’s started to too. When he moved Lachlan Coote to the bench and brought Te Maire Martin on in the halves and went with Michael Morgan at fullback, they’re in a bad spot.

“They’re looking for anything at the moment.”

The Cowboys are one of four sides anchoring the ladder after eight rounds, with Parramatta, Manly and the Bulldogs the others languishing on just two wins.

Of the four, the Cowboys and the Eels are the only two still considered genuine shots of making the playoffs due to their star power, which could rocket them up the ladder if they can find confidence and momentum.

However, only one of those sides has shown enough to convince Ennis a resurgence is possible.

“I never thought I would see the Cowboys sitting where they are at this point of the season and I don’t think anyone would have,” Ennis said.

“Parramatta, I think Parramatta (are more capable of turning things around).

“They look like they’ve got confidence, they’re happy. The Cowboys look frustrated and they’re in a hole.”

Remarkably Ennis used hindsight to suggest the NRL public had fallen into the trap of overrating the Cowboys on the back of three good games in September last year.

It took a shock Round 26 Dragons loss for North Queensland to stumble into the playoffs and Ennis suggested the last six weeks of the regular season had been too easily forgotten.

“ ... The game’s moved forward from 2015,” Ennis said. “Now I know they made the grand final last year, but they’re a side that had lost the last five games of six heading into the finals.

“Yes they got it together and people at home might think I’m crazy but they played a Sharks side who were looking at the Cowboys, who were depleted, looking ahead.

“They played Parramatta who had just smashed the Storm and narrowly lost and thought ‘we’ll beat the Cowboys, they can’t stay up, they were up last week against the Sharks’, they got their pants pulled down.

“And then against the Roosters, the Roosters were like ‘they can’t keep going, this will be perfect, we’ll play the depleted Cowboys and we’ll make a grand final’. They were all looking ahead.

“And now a side with Johnathan Thurston and Matt Scott back in it, the form of Michael Morgan last year, everyone’s prepared for them and they’re just not there.

“They’ve got no answers at the moment.”