Todd Payten has responded to mounting calls for him to be sacked immediately by pointing to North Queensland Cowboys players he believes “haven’t been getting their jobs done” as the club’s already unlikely finals chances seep away.
Payten has been under pressure throughout 2025 with the Cowboys underperforming, a fact compounded by the fact fellow struggling helmsman Adam O’Brien now looks certain to be sacked.
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Now the Cowboys have slumped to a season’s low point in Round 20, dropping to second last on the ladder after getting outplayed by state rivals the Dolphins 43-24 at Suncorp Stadium. The defeat is North Queensland’s third in a row, and talks in Townsville are slowly but surely talking about whether Payten needs to be scalped before the year is over.
For Payten, he understands it’s “part of the business” — before pointing to Cowboys players.
“Very disappointing seeing the points we did [concede] in that first 40,” the underfire coach said on Thursday.
“It’s been for different reasons… the bulk of possession has being going against us, but tonight that’s not the reason; they’re just on different pages at different moments, and it’s really costly,” Payten said when asked what’s going wrong.
“It put us under far too much pressure, and it was too much to chase down. We showed a heap of fight, got ourselves back in the game, but a couple of costly moments with 12 or 13 minutes to go quelled anything that we were putting together.”
“When guys aren’t getting their job done, it’s one-on-one misses or misreads, they’re pouring through us.”
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The Cowboys boss added he was trying not to give questions around his role “any energy” as the struggles continue. “It hasn’t always been the case, but through experience, my focus goes into getting this team right and what we’re doing day-to-day,” he explained.
“And then,” he continued, “when I’m away from here, I’m getting better and being more present with my family.
“That’s my two focuses at the moment, and that won’t change.”
Whether that sentiment is enough to save his job remains to be seen, though this Sporting Base writer will admit some surprise that Payten turned to whacking his players’ defensive efforts as a reason for the loss. Should he continue to lean on that topic too much longer, it may not just be the Cowboys fans and some powerbrokers that lose the faith.
For now, Cowboys CEO Jeff Reibel has publicly backed Payten. We’ll see how long that lasts.
