A flurry of signings

It’s not been announced, but the word is the club and Todd Payten have agreed a 3 year extension (no doubt it’ll be announced soon). I think it a good thing and the right decision. I was probably on the fence earlier in the year, but I think a very strong first 12 rounds in season 2026 (we’re 8 from 12) has swung it for me.

I also think the club has made some quite big calls on the recruitment front. Resigning Purdue, Chester, Burns and Mikaele, bringing in both Ramien & Katoa, letting Drinkwater & (presumably) Murray walk. I find it impossible to believe those decisions don’t have Payten’s fingerprints all over them, so it would seem daft to let him leave at this point.

I also look around the list of available coaches, and I’m kind of underwhelmed. Brad Arthur & Jason Demetriou usually get a mention, as does Kevin Walters. None of the three have coached a club to a premiership, and none of the 3 has a winning NRL record of over 52% (Todd currently sits at 51.5% in his time with the Cowboys). The two guys who were highly regarded as being ready to be head coach – Josh Hannay & Dean Young – are both now sitting in head coach roles. And Willie Peters (who has coached very successfully in England) has taken the PNG gig. Billy Slater seems set to move in Bellamy’s shoes at Melbourne. For me there isn’t a stand out alternative.  Maybe we could take a swing at Ivan Cleary? Seems a long shot though.

The fact we’ve got so many players in career best form (or close to) is another big tick for Todd. Clifford, Burns, Chester, Luki & Mikaele are all playing their best footy at the moment, and you’d have to say Cotter, BigJase, Laybutt, Mahoney, Drinkwater, McIntyre & Lodge are also playing great. That’s good squad & man management.

So all things considered, yes, I do think the club has made the right call on Todd.

Ramien & Katoa are interesting signings. They are on the fringe at the Sharks – each has played 6 games so far this year. But both are proven first graders (well over 100 games for each. Coming here with something to prove perhaps. And both are still in their 20s. They come out of a successful program in the Sharks (who have been in the finals 4 of the last 5 year)s. They have a great combination as they both play the same side. There’s a lot to like here.

 

It’s certainly a boost to the depth and threat offered by our three-quarterline. And I think we need both to threaten for a premiership. I’m thinking Purdue to fullback leaves a centre slot open, and Murray (likely) moving on opens a wing spot. And yes, it does mean guys like Vailea, Derby, Laybutt, & Burns might get squeezed in terms of game time, but we need pressure and competition within the squad to get the best out of players, and we need quality coverage for injuries if we want to run deep into the finals.

And hey, if Vailea, Derby, Laybutt & Burns are playing well enough to command a slot, I’ve zero doubt they’ll get to play.

Whipping Boys and Sacred Cows

Disappointing loss to Parramatta. For mine we seemed to have their measure the whole game, but couldn't quite put them away. And that came back to burn us at the end.

Obviously losing TommyD sucks, and it almost certainly cost us the game. That said, even with Tommy out there on one leg, there were though still a few opportunities to ice the game, and we fumbled our lines.

I was then rather surpised to see the reactions on Twitter and facebook. Plenty of ranting about Payten and Drinkwater. Yet Mikaele, who dropped the ball with 40 seconds left in great field goal position, and could have killed the contest by dropping on a loose ball with 5 minutes left (Parramatta scored the next play), was immune to criticism.

Laybutt also had a poor night with his hands, coming up with 3 handling errors, and was central to our pissing away of our ref challenge (which might have been very useful) - again, not much criticism on line. 

If we were going to single one person out, it should have been Laybutt or Mikaele (IMO).

Meanwhile Drinkwater ran for 213m on Friday, had a tackle efficiency of 90%, produced 2 line break assists (and what should have been another try assist butchered by Laybutt in the first half). He played a strong game. He certainly didn't cost us the win. 

And I'm sure Todd didn't tell the team at half time to rack up a bunch of handling errors and give Parramatta a heap of chances. To be fair, he might have pulled Dearden straight away after the injury, but Dearden said he thought he could run it off, and the trainer (who I'm guessing wasn't some drunken rando they plucked out of the crowd 5 minutes before kickoff) also felt he'd be right: 20-20 vision in hindsight. And the interchange was already under heavy pressure given Soni Luke only lasted 30 seconds. 

It again for me brought up the idea that some players/people are very much sacred cows who never get criticised for any errors or mistakes (in this case Mikaele & Laybutt), while some are whipping boys who get the blame for everything (Drinkwater, Payten, and before that it was Chad and Peter Hiku)

I'm not 100% sure what's happening here, but I think it's something to do with Collective Behavior and the psychology of getting the likes and positive feedback from others. It's a bit Lord of the Flies in that respect. 

One thing I have noticed though. It's never the local who becomes the whipping boy - Hiku, Payten, Chad, Drinkwater - none of them North Queenslanders.

I don't know what it all means. Interesting tho. 

Tying up some discussion loose ends

Bit of banter on bookface, twitter, discussion boards about few goings on within the club. Not worth an article my themselves, but probably knit it into a worthwile read.

Many of the discussions relate to contracts. If you want to know who's coming off contract, check out this on Zero Tackle

Why did we let Drinkwater go? 

While I'm not a fan of the decision, I understand the logic. Drinky is turning 29 in two weeks time (so is certainly in the backend of his career), and we have three boom youngsters with strong chops at fullback (Barber, King & Purdue, but you could also make a case for Chester). And I doubt we'd have gotten away with paying him anything under $800K/year. I think there are other spots where we have a pressing need to recruit.

Why are we talking to other five eighths - why not just resign Clifford? 

We've put a multi year contract to Jake and he hasn't signed. My guess is he's testing the waters with Perth and PNG entering the comp and seeing what shakes out there, but it's hard to gauge what he's thinking. He was fairly single minded about coming back to NQ and the last 6 weeks have been the best of his career, so you'd reckon he'd be happy to stay...... Regardess it makes sense for the Cowboys to be hedging their bets and talking to guys like Chanel Harris-Tavita at least until Clifford commits..

We screwed up letting <insert player> go. 

If you're talking about Val, you're wrong. He was on mega dollars here that wasn't matched by his form (which was patchy at best in 2025). And he's been a horror show at St George so far, which justifies our decision.

If you're talking about Finefuiaki, you're wrong. We tried hard to keep him. But he had strong family ties in Brisbane.

If you're talking about Gilbert, you're wrong. We tried hard to keep him. But he moved to Brisbane for family reasons.

Both Gilbert & Finefui would be awesome additions to the team, but it's hard to trump family. 

If you're talking about Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, you probably have a stronger case, but it's complex. Some people claim we choose Peter Hiku over him. That's not the case. The Hammer signed with the Fins in October 22. Hiku signed a 2 year deal to come to NQ in May 2021. (Keep in mind Hiku has a stonking year in 2022: 6th in the comp for running metres - More metres than BigJase). The Hammer left because he wanted to play fullback and Drinkwater was in his prime and playing great footy - his pathway to the 1 jersey was blocked. Yes, Wayne Bennett moulded him into a centre/fullback and maybe we might have kept him had we pushed him to centre (and compete with Val & Hiku for a spot), but back in 2022 coming off the season the club & Hiku had, I can't remember anyone thinking this was an option back then.

If you're talking about Robson, the jury is still out. He was and is an elite hooker, but we've backfilled him rather well with Mahoney, and the word is Robson and Payten weren't on great terms. Seemingly Mahoney is proving is better fit, and I don't think we've seen his best as a Cowboy. He was though strong against the Bulldogs, and I think having that game behind him will also free him up a little more.