Deep into offseason, but the predicatable pics of preseason runs up Castle Hill have started to appear on Cowboys socials. Training for 2026 has begun.
Probably the big news coming out of the camp is Purdue training largely at halfback. And this comes straight from Payten on the Cowboys own website:
https://www.cowboys.com.au/news/2025/12/19/payten-hes-training-at-halfback-at-the-moment/
This has caused some angst among the rank and file Cowboys fans. The common thinking is that Dearden-Clifford needs to be our halves combo in 2026 and Purdue should stick to the centres.
Let's unpick what's happening here.
Purdue has come up through juniors paying in the spine - mainly fullback and halfback. He's made a good fist of the centres though. My *guess* (I have no inside knowledge of this) though is he wants to go back to the spine. He probably sees himself as a spine player, and also in terms of your value & earnings as a player, being in the spine will absolutely drive up his salary & future worth. So I'm guessing he wants to play there. And he hasn't re-signed beyond 2026 to this point........
Now it's fair to say he didn't exactly light it up when he got a chance to play five-eighth earlier in the season. Purdue played in the halves v Manly in Round 11 (L), v Tigers in Round 13 (W), v Storm in Round 14 (L), v Dolphins in Round 15 (L), v Roosters Round 16 (L), v Dolphins again in Round 20 (L), v Sharks Round 22 (L). 1 win from 7 (that's 14.2%).
It is though also worth noting that Jason Taumulolo missed *all* of those games Purdue played in the halves. And is there's one player in our squad that's the secret sauce to our success, it's big Jase. The team won 60% of the matches he played (and the team only managed a winning record of only 21% of the games when he didn't play).
In that light, perhaps Purdue's record doesn't look that bad. And look at who we lost to when he was in the halves - Storm, Roosters & Sharks all made the finals, and the Fins & Manly finish 9th and 10th. That was a tough run.
I also think we can't really have a sensible discussion around Purdue without discussing the alternatives.
Now TommyD is a lock for the halves. Doesn't bother me a great deal if it's a 6 or 7 on his jersey. So really it becomes a discussion around Jake Clifford.
Jake to me is a really frusrating, enigmatic player. Capable of moments of brilliance, but all to often underwhelming.
Here's Jake as his best:
A great kicker, a threat running the ball, and someone who can set up play for others.
The real problem is we usually see medocre Jake: Rarely runs it, kicks occasionally, often won't touch the ball in a set & sets up nothing
The stats bear that out. From season 2025:
Clifford was outside the top 50 for average linebreak involvments for (Dearden 9th @ 0.6/game, Drinky 29th @ 0.4/game)
Clifford was 36th for average try assists (Drinky was 7th with 1/game, Dearden 29th with 0.6/game)
Clifford was outside the top 50 for for average line break assists (Drinky was 9th with 0.9, Tommy 14th with 0.8)
All pretty key metrics for a spine player I'd have thought
Now to be fair he is the best kicker for meters in the team (he averages 287m/game), but at 24th place it's a long way behind the 500m+ you get from Cleary & Moses.
(Note I've deliberately selected averages/game rather than totals)
Long story short, I simply don't think Clifford consistently contributes enough in a halves role. He'll continue to have flurries & moments, but given he's played near 100 NRL games spread across 8 seasons, it's hard to think the leopard will change his spots as this point.
Bottom line is this. I don't think Jake is the kind of player who takes us deep into finals. Jaxson isn't yet, but could well become the player who could. And I think we need to give him the 7 jersey to keep him. It's a gamble given he's unproven at NRL level at 7, but Jake is tried and failed IMO.
