Todd Payten expected to see out season with North Queensland Cowboys, but 2026 is no certainty
Todd Payten bought himself some breathing room with a scratchy win against the Dragons - now the Cowboys coach has five games to cement his future before a post-season review.
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Cowboys coach Todd Payten has five games to prove he is the man to lead North Queensland’s future before the stuttering club launches a review into its 2025 capitulation.
Payten bought himself some breathing room with a scratchy 38-32 win against the Dragons in Townsville on Friday night.
Maroons star Tom Dearden saved the Cowboys from another embarrassing defeat with a two-try masterclass to keep North Queensland’s faint finals hopes alive.
The victory was North Queensland’s third in 12 matches, a period which has seen the Cowboys seemingly spiral and become one of the NRL’s worst defensive teams.
The Cowboys have conceded an average of 29.6 points per game this season, thrusting the spotlight on Payten’s future as he comes to the end of his fifth year in charge of the club.
While speculation has been rife that Payten is under pressure, the Cowboys are expected to show patience and hold fire given the favourable draw they have to finish the season.
They face the Sharks in Cronulla next Sunday before a run of games against bottom eight teams the Eels, Knights and Tigers. The Cowboys complete their regular season against Brisbane in Townsville before a final round bye.
They are still in finals contention and Payten can lockup his future with a string of wins and top eight finish.
However a run of losses against the NRL’s cellar dwellers could prove costly for Payten, who is off-contract at the end of 2026.
Cowboys chairman Lewis Ramsay said the club believed Payten was the right coach.
“He’s on contract here. We believe in the coach,” he said.
“No one’s hurting more about our performances than the coach and the players.
“They’re doing everything within their power to look at what they can change week-to-week in their preparation, game plan and execution. They’re questioning everything in terms of how they get better.
“Todd’s our coach, he’s on contract, I have no doubt that he has some ideas for how he can get better and he’s soliciting whatever feedback he can at the moment for improving himself and the team’s performance.
“The whole club is feeling the pain of where we’re at. We believe we’re a better club than where we’re at and we’re not happy with our current position.
“We don’t think there’s a lot that’s fundamentally broken but we do have to start looking to the off-season for review and improvement.”
Payten, 46, took charge of the Cowboys from the 2021 season following 2015 premiership coach Paul Green’s sacking.
He piloted North Queensland to a preliminary finals loss to Parramatta in 2022 and the second week of last year’s play-offs, resurrecting the career of Dearden and transforming Reece Robson, Reuben Cotter, Jeremiah Nanai and Murray Taulagi into Origin players.
But the Cowboys have struggled for consistency over the past five years despite having a team stacked with State of Origin stars.
A steady run of injuries this year has made it difficult for Payten to find continuity in his team, with the likes of Jason Taumalolo, Murray Taulagi, Jordan McLean and Heilum Luki sidelined.
But the nature of North Queensland’s crash has been concerning, particularly heavy defeats to the Dolphins (twice), Sea Eagles, Sharks, Roosters and Storm.
“We haven’t performed as well as we hoped and anticipated,” Ramsay said.
“We are disappointed with where we sit at the moment. There’s still a month left in the season and we’re hoping to finish strongly.
“We haven’t written the season off, but the next few weeks are pivotal for us.
“Did we think we’d be in this position earlier in the year when we were sitting in the top eight? We probably didn’t.
“The blowout scorelines have been really disappointing and then in some of the closer games we haven’t come away with the points.”
Somewhat hidden in North Queensland, a long way from the NRL furnace in Brisbane and Sydney, the Cowboys escape the intense criticism that other clubs attract.
That allows them to operate with less external pressure and Ramsay said the Cowboys would launch a review in the off-season, with a looming front office restructure and appointment of new group CEO.
“The detailed reviews happen in the off-season,” he said.
“It’s a difficult time for us in terms of where the club’s at but also making any sort of decisions about how we dig ourselves out of this from year to year.
“We’re not happy about where we sit currently and we’re hoping to improve that in the run home.
“The time for more detailed review doesn’t happen until the off-season because so much is locked into place and we’ve got to make sure that we’re relentless when that time comes.”
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