Cowboys make early move to tie up Dearden with $2 million extension

The North Queensland Cowboys have put a huge $2 million contract offer in front of star five-eighth Tom Dearden in a bid to keep him at the club for the next four seasons, if not even longer.

Dearden is currently signed with the Cowboys through to 2024 already but North Queensland powerbrokers want to make sure he’s going to stay in Townsville a lot longer than that.

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The new deal, which would up his pay a little in 2024 too, would run to 2027 and pay out a little over $2 million. That means Dearden would be earning around $600,000 a season with the club where he’s already played 54 first-grade games.

The 22-year-old would command closer to $900,000 on the open market.

However, Dearden wants to stay loyal to the Cowboys wherever he can, especially considering the chance they took on him after a struggling 22-game stint at the Broncos early in his career left him searching for NRL options. He’s more than happy, The Sporting Base has heard, to take less coin to stay with Todd Payten and North Queensland.

The Cowboys are more than eager to keep their five-eighth, who continues to improve.

“We have started discussions with Tom to go beyond 2024,” Cowboys football boss Micheal Luck told the Courier Mail on Sunday.

“He is only young so we’d love to have him here for another few years. With a longer-term deal for a younger player, you want to make sure the deal is good for both club and player. Sometimes they take a bit longer to work through. We feel North Queensland is a good club for Tom, so hopefully he agrees on a deal and we can keep him here for a long term.”

If Dearden does accept the offer—The Sporting Base has heard he will—then that shrinks the off-contract five-eighth pool again.

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As it stands, the biggest names available from 2024 include Ezra Mam (Broncos), Jarome Luai (Panthers), and Luke Metcalf (Warriors), all of whom are interested in hearing offers.