HOT PROPERTY
COWBOYS CONFIDENT OF RETAINING GRAND FINAL STARS
THE Cowboys are confident they can hold off the raids from rival NRL clubs and retain the bulk of their maiden premiership- winning talent.
Nine of the 17 players who featured in North Queensland’s grand final win on Sunday will go off contract at the end of 2016, and the club expects NRL rivals to come with their chequebooks open.
Grand final starters Lachlan Coote, Jake Granville, James Tamou, Ethan Lowe, Antonio Winterstein, Kane Linnett and Justin O’Neill are among the players whose deals are due to expire after next season, along with bench players Rory Kostjasyn and Ben Hannant.
It would be a turnaround given many of those players arrived in Townsville from other clubs looking for a chance to further their careers.
But North Queensland has a strong record of recruitment and have held opposition at bay in recent years in keeping Johnathan Thurston, Matt Scott and Jason Taumalolo despite attempts to lure them to Sydney or New Zealand.
Given the Cowboys’ sustained success in making the NRL finals the past five years, and a maiden premiership at last, North Queensland general manager of football Peter Parr said they were expecting other clubs to come knocking.
“That’s not foreign to us. Over the last few years we’ve had clubs try to secure Johnathan, Matt Scott, James Tamou and Jason Taumalolo, and we’ve been able to keep those guys,” Parr said.
“We’re confident that our current players, their preferred option would be to stay here,” Parr said.
“I’m confident we’ll be able to keep the team together, but that’s for another day.”
Adding to the challenge will be added demands on the salary cap, with good form and premiership success adding to their value.
But Parr said they had battled that balancing act before and were confident that also would not stop them.
“We’ve done a reasonable job over the last couple of years keeping the squad together so we’ll do our very best that continues to happen,” he said.
The Cowboys will go into next season with the bulk of the first- grade squad, which secured their most successful NRL season.
Under- 20s Braden Uele and Kyle Laybutt have earned promotion to the first- grade squad while Gold Coast Titans under- 20s fullback Shaun Hudson is set to come into the squad.