{"id":365650,"date":"2025-12-23T01:06:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T01:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/365650\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T01:06:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T01:06:15","slug":"cowboys-2026-nrl-squad-analysis-fullback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/365650\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys 2026 NRL squad analysis – fullback"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cowboys.com.au are providing an in-depth positional analysis of the 2026 North Queensland Toyota Cowboys squad. We begin the series this week with the fullback position headlined by Scott Drinkwater<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The players are ranked by their NRL experience with their career numbers of games in brackets next to their name.<\/p>\n

Scott Drinkwater<\/a> (144)<\/p>\n

As he enters his ninth NRL season, Drinkwater remains one of the NRL\u2019s premier attacking players. The 28-year-old finished fourth in the NRL with 184 points in 2025 after taking over goal-kicking duties. He finished second in try assists with 24 and fourth with 21 linebreak assists.<\/p>\n


\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n <\/p>\n

Tom Chester<\/a> (12)<\/p>\n

The highly talented Townsville product had his season end before it began after suffering an ACL injury last December. It was the second serious knee injury for the 24-year-old, but he is set to be in the mix for the 2026 Round 1 team after being cleared to return to full training once he returns from the Christmas break.<\/p>\n


\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n <\/p>\n

Ethan King<\/a> (3)<\/p>\n

Born in Weipa, King returns to North Queensland after a stint with the Sydney Roosters, which saw him play three NRL games. A fullback as a junior, King\u2019s first grade appearances have come in the centres.<\/p>\n


\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n <\/p>\n

Mason Barber<\/a> (0)<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old former schoolboy superstar has been elevated to the Development List for 2026. Barber missed the entire 2025 season after undergoing a shoulder reconstruction in the pre-season. His best position remains to be determined, but Barber has the ability to play fullback, centre and wing.<\/p>\n


\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cowboys.com.au are providing an in-depth positional analysis of the 2026 North Queensland Toyota Cowboys squad. We begin the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-365650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}