{"id":382719,"date":"2025-12-31T14:18:48","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T14:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/382719\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T14:18:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T14:18:48","slug":"cowboys-2026-nrl-squad-analysis-hooker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/382719\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys 2026 NRL squad analysis &#8211; hooker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cowboys.com.au are providing an in-depth positional analysis of the 2026 North Queensland Toyota Cowboys squad. We continue the series today with hookers, led by star recruit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cowboys.com.au\/teams\/nrl-premiership\/north-queensland-cowboys\/reed-mahoney\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Reed Mahoney<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The players are ranked by their NRL experience with their career numbers of games in brackets next to their name.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cowboys.com.au\/teams\/nrl-premiership\/north-queensland-cowboys\/reed-mahoney\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Reed Mahoney<\/a> (175)<\/p>\n<p>North Queensland\u2019s prized addition for 2026, Mahoney has quickly endeared himself to coaches and teammates with his training intensity. A lock to start at hooker in Las Vegas, Mahoney will look to quickly strike up a combination with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cowboys.com.au\/teams\/nrl-premiership\/north-queensland-cowboys\/tom-dearden\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tom Dearden<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cowboys.com.au\/teams\/nrl-premiership\/north-queensland-cowboys\/scott-drinkwater\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Scott Drinkwater<\/a> as the key members of the Cowboys\u2019 spine.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n  &#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<br \/>\n    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"inline-image__image o-shadowed-box\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1767190726_989_mahoney-_25.11.25-1.jpg\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\n  &#13;<br \/>\n  &#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<br \/>\n  &#13;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cowboys.com.au\/teams\/nrl-premiership\/north-queensland-cowboys\/harrison-edwards\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Harrison Edwards<\/a> (53)<\/p>\n<p>While not a recognised full-time hooker, Edwards has proven a more than capable fill during his time in North Queensland. The 25-year-old has started three games at hooker for the Cowboys and could be an option in 2026 if injury hit the position.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n  &#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<br \/>\n    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"inline-image__image o-shadowed-box\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/edwards-_08.12.25-38.jpg\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\n  &#13;<br \/>\n  &#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<br \/>\n  &#13;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cowboys.com.au\/news\/2025\/10\/29\/cowboys-2026-development-list-xavier-kerrisk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Xavier Kerrisk<\/a> (0)<\/p>\n<p>The Mackay product is regarded as one of the best emerging hookers in Queensland, following a brilliant schoolboy career. Now in his second season as part of the NRL squad, Kerrisk could push for an NRL debut in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n  &#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<br \/>\n    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"inline-image__image o-shadowed-box\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/kerrisk-_10.11.25-1.jpg\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\n  &#13;<br \/>\n  &#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<br \/>\n  &#13;<\/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 continue the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-382719","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\/382719","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=382719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}