‘An excellent sounding board for our spine’: Cowboys unveil shock signing with Origin star James Maloney joining the club
The Cowboys have turned to a former NSW Origin star to help them after they shockingly missed out on the finals.
NRL
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Former playmaker James Maloney is returning to the NRL, with the two-time premiership winner joining the Cowboys’ coaching staff for the next two seasons.
The 37-year-old won premierships with the Roosters and Sharks and will head to North Queensland to lead their attack that looked unstoppable at times in 2023 but fell away as they lost four of their final five matches to miss the top eight.
Maloney left the NRL in 2019 following two seasons with Penrith and spent the next two years playing for Catalans in the English Super League, helping them to the 2021 grand final that they lost to St Helens.
The former representative five-eighth spent time with Lezignan in the French league where he had a player-coach role, which has given him some experience before his move to the Cowboys where he’ll work under Todd Payten.
Maloney played a key role in helping premiership star Nathan Cleary develop into the player he is today, while he’ll have some familiar faces with him in Townsville having won the 2016 title with Chad Townsend and Valentine Holmes.
“We are excited at the prospect of the new dimension James will add to our program,” Cowboys general manager of football Micheal Luck said.
“With an experienced assistant in Justin Morgan coming on board this year, we made the decision to target a younger coach with recent experience on the field to focus on our attack.
“We met with Jimmy in Townsville last week and we were impressed with how he presented and the ideas he had to improve our team.
“He will be an excellent sounding board for our spine, in particular our young halves in Tom Dearden, Tom Duffy and Jake Clifford.”
Originally published as ‘An excellent sounding board for our spine’: Cowboys unveil shock signing with Origin star James Maloney joining the club
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