North Queensland coach Neil Henry believes the hype and expectation riding on his Cowboys to win their maiden NRL premiership is great for the club.

Rather than shy away from reports the Cowboys are hugely popular with punters, Henry said such expectation could only bring out the best in his players in 2013.

The Cowboys face the toughest road trip to start the season, battling Canterbury in Gosford on Saturday night in their opening NRL clash before travelling to Melbourne to face the team that beat the Bulldogs in last year’s grand final, the Storm.

“There’s been a lot of hype and a lot of expectation there. We don’t mind that,” he said.

“It’s better to have expectation than hope.

“Playing last year’s two grand finalists first up is tough but we can really build some early momentum if we play well.”

Henry has handed the dummy-half responsibilities to Englishman Scott Moore with Ray Thompson beating Robert Lui to the No.7 jumper.

“Ray has been more consistent than Rob (Lui) who’s still a little out of touch after 12 months away from footy, but there wasn’t much in it,” said Henry.

Henry conceded life could be a little easier against Canterbury with superstar fullback Ben Barba not playing after being stood down by the Bulldogs last month for personal reasons.

“They’ll cover for him, they’ll step up,” he said.

“But the fact is he’s got a knack of turning up. Hopefully they’ll miss him a fair bit.”

But even without Barba, Henry said the Bulldogs still had a stack of firepower in Krisnan Inu, Josh Morris, Sam Perrett and Josh Reynolds.

“Even without Barba they got players who can hurt you,” said Henry.

“Their forwards are also very powerful and can offload so we will respect them.”

Veteran Cowboys fullback Matt Bowen, lining up for his 13th straight season, will celebrate his 31st birthday on the night in Henry’s 100th game as coach.