The man who saved the Cowboys from grand final misery drew inspiration from a quote associated with the death of a former teammate and close friend.

Michael Morgan was spurred on by the phrase "A moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory" in memory of close friend Alex Elisala. The quote was positioned in Morgan's locker room inside ANZ Stadium just under his name. It was part of a plan by North Queensland coach Paul Green for each member of the Cowboys squad to have inspirational phrases – chosen by the players - inside their change room. It was designed to be the last thing they looked at before taking the field.

Morgan, whose magical flick pass to Kyle Feldt led to the Cowboys last-minute try, attached a phrase to his locker which reminded him of Elisala, who took his own life in 2013. The Cowboys have had them in their dressing sheds in recent weeks but have kept the messages shrouded in mystery preferring to keep the notes – which are surrounded by an image of the NRL trophy – a secret.

"We're not meant to talk about them too much," Morgan said. "It's something personal. It's a quote that I liked. We came up with them at the start of the year. It's something that no one else sees."

Morgan carried the memory of Elisala into Sunday's premiership decider. He took time out to remember his friend moments after Johnathan Thurston kicked the match-winning field goal.

"We had to pick something that motivates me and that's what it does," Morgan said. "It's no secret that he did [mean a lot to me] and he still does.  I had a moment there where I did. I looked up [to the sky]."

Other players looked elsewhere for inspiration. Prop James Tamou had a photo of his son on his sign board next to this note: "I want my name to go down in North Queensland history as the first team to win a Premiership".

Interchange forward John Asiata quoted a biblical passage from Philippians 4:13; "You can do all the things through Christ who strengthens me" with two signs of the Cross displayed. Centre Kane Linnett had two short notes to remind himself of the Cowboys camaraderie: "Brothers by choice" and "Be better every day".

His centre partner Justin O'Neill had "family" predominately flashed on his signboard and "win the contest" underneath.

O'Neill said the notes were a way of keeping focused.

"The first part is something I play for each time I step out onto the field," O'Neill said. "I owe it to my family and what they've done for me. I couldn't be where I am in my career without them. That's one thing. The other thing is a message to remind myself that when I go out on the field I want to compete and be the best player I can be and win the contest. It's helped throughout the year in games when it got tough.

"We talked about it and that we might want to have something to put up in our lockers when we go to training or go away to play games that can help us to remind who we are playing and what we play for.

"It's something that gets us up for games."

Meanwhile, Morgan did not even see the moment which will become part of NRL folklore.

His flick pass, with the Cowboys premiership dream slipping away, found winger Kyle Feldt who scored the match equalling try as the siren blew. Morgan said he had no idea what happened when he released the ball.

"I didn't see the try," Morgan said. "I got a bit of a burn in my shoulder and I looked over and all the boys were celebrating so I thought it must've come off. It was just one of those things that happened.

"You don't really plan those things. It was just one of those things that I was lucky that it came off."

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