Cowboys second-rower Scott Bolton could be out of action for up to six weeks as a result of a calf muscle tear sustained in Friday night’s game.Bolton went down about 18 minutes into the 16-14 triumph over the Brisbane Broncos and initial estimates of two weeks on the bench have now been replaced by a possible time frame of “two to six weeks”. Coach Neil Henry said Bolton would undergo MRI scans on the injury this morning but with the results of the scan still to be reviewed he added that an accurate time frame was hard to provide. “He could be out for several weeks,” he said. “It could be two to six weeks depending on how severe it is. The docs say it’s a deep tissue tear so it could be about four weeks.” Bolton’s loss is a bitter blow to the Cowboys and no doubt a tough pill to swallow for the rugged Innisfail Brothers junior, who has been on the fringe of Origin selection for the last two seasons. But Bolton’s absence didn’t prove fatal on Friday as the Cowboys came out tops to break a seven-match losing streak to Brisbane stretching back to the start of 2007. That last win against the Broncos coincidentally came in the year the Cowboys last made it the NRL semi-finals. “Yeah I hope it’s an omen but we’ve got a lot of new players at the club too,” Henry said. “It was a tremendous effort I thought to hang in there. Defensively it was outstanding at different times but it’s the first step in the season. “I thought Glenn Hall he didn’t train with us all week he was in Sydney for the birth of his baby girl hung in there too and played more minutes than we really wanted him to play.” Henry also praised the 80-minute effort of Dallas Johnson, who made the most individual tackles of the game with 42, while also touching on five-eighth Ray Thompson’s performance. “I think Ray was very solid defensively. They really targeted him and I thought he aimed up every time which was great coming back from a shoulder reconstruction,” Henry said. “Probably a couple of options for his kicks could have been better but he’s learning all the time. “Benny Jones was a little bit quiet going on at hooker but Aaron Payne was very good so we’ll probably maintain the status quo there and Ray needs to settle in his position.” Henry said some lapses in discipline and turnover of possession before the completion of sets would need to be addressed. “We didn’t get to the end of our sets a couple of times, bit of a lack of discipline in a couple of tackles cost us penalties,” he said. “I looked at it in the review process and they were probably justified penalties, so we gifted about five sets of possession to the Broncos and we can’t afford to do that.” Cowboys winger Ashley Graham was named as players’ player.