Aren't the Byes determined on how many players a Club provided to Origin in the previous season? Teams that provided the most tend to get one or both Byes during Origin.
As for Draw requests.
For the Cowboys it will be for as many 7.30 Saturday night home games as possible (they really do make a difference in the ability of people to travel from outside of Townsville/Thuringowa [some as far away as Mount Isa, Mackay and all those that travel down from Cairns and even further north.).
Personally, I'd also ask for LESS home games in the first 5/6 weeks - please drop it down to only 3 this time :roll:.
Close to 30 degress with +80% humidity is not a great time to be playing 4-5 home games in the first 6-7 weeks ..... and heaven help the players if a day game is scheduled :shock:.