Why Cowboys CEO can't rap Payten enough for form rebound

After starting the season 0-2, newly appointed Cowboys CEO of Football Michael Luck has praised coach Todd Payten for his turnaround.

There has been plenty of speculation surrounding Payten's future given he is the only out-of-contract NRL coach this year.

And after losses to Newcastle and the Tigers to start 2026, the pressure surrounding his job was palpable.

But North Queensland have responded to the pressure, having won three on the trot which has them sitting inside the top eight.

With their turnaround in form, the Cowboys' CEO of Football gave plenty of credit to Payten and how he stuck with his plan despite some initial troubles.

“I’ll give Toddy a huge rap,” Luck told SENQ Breakfast.

“The back end of last year, we did a fair amount of soul searching about what sort of club we wanted to be and how we were going to go about that.

“There were plenty of changes made, certainly amongst our staff.

“But then also, Toddy philosophically hadn’t changed the way that he was going to coach and communicate and be around his players.

“He’s done that. He put a plan in place and hasn’t wavered from it.

“And you know, (there was) a couple of rough results.

“We just had to head down and put the gloves up for a couple of weeks.

“But to his credit, he stuck to the plan that he wanted to enact.

“And I think now, the results have been a little bit more consistent over the last few weeks."

But as Luck acknowledges, there are still plenty of matches left in the season.

“It’s only five games into a 24-game season, so it’s a long year,” he added.

“But I can’t rap Toddy enough for how he handled that first month of the season and got back on the winning side of things.”

The Cowboys are now on the hunt for their fourth straight win when they face the Broncos.

That match will take place this Friday at Suncorp Stadium from 8pm AEST.

SEN will have live coverage of the match through Broncos Radio on SENQ and on the SEN app following the conclusion of the Dragons vs Sea Eagles match.