North Queensland's forward blitz can be attributed to a slight tinkering in the club's interchange rotation.

In a bid to spark his side, Cowboys coach Paul Green has altered the rotation of starting middle players Matt Scott, James Tamou and Jason Taumalolo during the finals series. For a large chunk of the season, Scott was playing shorter stints but Green has now called on his co-captain to play more minutes in the opening exchanges. Scott was generally replaced around the 20-minute mark in matches throughout 2014, but his first sting in the opening three finals matches are just shy of half-an-hour.

This has allowed Taumalolo to have more of an impact role with two shorter stints. His longest opening stint in the finals series lasted just 17 minutes. Taumalolo previously had generally stayed on the field for the opening 25 minutes before being replaced. Scott's opening period was just 16 minutes in the Cowboys' final regular season game against the Gold Coast, while that was bumped up to 28 minutes in their last-start win against Melbourne.

Tamou would also play for 30 unbroken minutes but he too has averaged just 22 minutes before being replaced. Scott said the change had taken some adjustment.

"We tinkered with it a little bit," Scott said. "It has worked. It has taken a little bit of adjusting to. It's obviously working. Jason has been playing fantastic footy. It's going to stay the same from Sunday. I've been having two longer stints instead of coming off and on. Jason is coming off and on."

The interchange shuffle has worked – for Scott, in particular – who produced a man-of-the-match performance in the second week of the finals against the Sharks and has averaged 148 metres in the past three weeks - 15 metres more than his season average. The switch has meant veteran forwards, Scott Bolton and Ben Hannant, have entered the fray earlier.

"We have a lot of depth in our forward pack," Scott said. "Bolts [Bolton] and Ben Hannant bring a great deal of experience to the side. When they come on we don't lose any momentum. They tend to lift the side."

Scott cemented himself as the game's best prop with a dominating performance against the Kiwi international Jesse Bromwich last week. Scott, who will play in his first grand final on Sunday, said he had challenged himself to perform before the Cowboys' 39-0 win against Cronulla.

"Personally I knew the Sharks forward pack was where their strengths are," Scott said. "They are big and physical and intimating. They like to play footy. Our pack is pretty inexperienced but we have guys like Jimmy [Tamou] and Jason who are so talented. I knew that I wanted to go out and set an example and show the way we want to play. The guys embraced it and jumped on the back. It was a pretty good performance in terms of the forward pack."

Scott said controlling Brisbane's ruck speed will be key in getting his hands on the premiership trophy. "They will be looking to start fast and work us over through the middle and tire us out through the speed of the ruck," Scott said. "We've got to try and control the ruck defensively and make sure we don't have the errors we had last time we played them."