Wait on naming youth coach
THE Cowboys will seek clarification on the future of the under- 20s competition before appointing a replacement for the promoted Todd Payten.
North Queensland under- 20s coach Payten will replace John Cartwright in Paul Green’s NRL coaching staff next season, with Cartwright moving to Manly to be Trent Barrett’s right- hand man.
The topic of scrapping the National Youth Competition at the end of 2016 was on the agenda during a club chief executives meeting in June, while the Queensland and New South Wales rugby leagues joined forces last year to submit a proposal to bring the under- 20s back to the state level as a feeder to the second - tier competitions.
The NRL feedback will influence how the Cowboys proceed with appointing a new under- 20s coach and what direction they take with their recruitment of young players and other staff, Cowboys general manager football Peter Parr said.
“What we are trying to ascertain at the moment from the NRL is some clarity about where the under- 20s competition is going and what its long- term future is,” he said. “There have been some suggestions that the competition may not be for the long- term and we don’t know if that’s true or not.
“Once we get some clarity on that, we’ll make some decisions then because it may well affect our thinking on where we go with the position.”
Payten’s promotion is just reward for one of the Cowboys’ most successful seasons in the NYC.
The Cowboys finished second on the ladder, one point behind minor premiers and grand final winners Penrith, and set records for the longest winning streak ( 13) and the fourth largest win in history before being eliminated by one point in the preliminary final.
Payten, 36, was widely respected by his under- 20s players and was regularly involved with the Cowboys’ first- grade squad through the year.
He was Mick Potter’s assistant at Wests Tigers in 2014 and spurned an assistant coach opportunity with Andrew McFadden at the New Zealand Warriors before taking up the post in Townsville.
“Todd’s been really impressive ever since we secured him to coach the under- 20s and he did a superb job with those fellas,” Parr said.
“We believe he’s the ideal person to take over from John.
“Our view has always been to try and promote from within so for us it was a fairly straight forward decision.”