With coach Todd Payten entering the final year of his contract, Corey Parker believes the pressure is on the 47-year-old to deliver results on the field as the Cowboys look to break into the top eight once again.<\/p>\n
Having consistently yo-yoed between finals and missing the eight through his five-year tenure, there have certainly been some frustrations about how Payten has this team performing.<\/p>\n
Considering they boast a squad with Origin representatives in Tom Dearden, Reuben Cotter and Jeremiah Nanai, a 12th-place finish last year saw those frustrations become more visible to deliver wins.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith a squad like they have and the players that they have and the international experience (and) the Origin experience, they need to produce on the park,\u201d Parker told SENQ Breakfast.<\/p>\n
But to help return to finals once more, they\u2019ll need to ensure that they handle the challenge associated with their trip to Las Vegas to start the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other thing to throw into it and we\u2019ve heard from the Broncos (about this),\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone that has done the Vegas trip and they\u2019ve gone over and played in Vegas, which the Cowboys are doing, there\u2019s been a lag (in their performance after), and there hasn\u2019t been a huge (amount) of positivity coming out from a football experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great way to start the season, but there has been a lag on how teams have dealt with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, they\u2019ve got to deal with it. So, for the Cowboys this season, I don\u2019t want to hear any other talk other than the fact that everyone is working hard in the off-season, that\u2019s how it is.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut they need to value their defensive habits and what they do more than their attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they can do that, they can well and truly go where they need to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the former Queensland lock remains unconvinced they can do so in 2026.<\/p>\n
“They’ve got a squad at the moment, which would suggest that with some young stars coming through with another pre-season under the belt, they can make a run for finals,” he explained.<\/p>\n
“Will they play? I’m not so sure.<\/p>\n
“Nothing over the last four or five years has given me enough substance for me to confidently say that they’ll play semi-final football.”<\/p>\n
North Queensland will begin their preparations for their Las Vegas season opener against the Bulldogs on February 7 at Jubilee Oval.<\/p>\n
Their first match of the 2026 season is against the Newcastle Knights on March 1 in Allegiant Stadium.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With coach Todd Payten entering the final year of his contract, Corey Parker believes the pressure is on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-442203","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\/442203","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=442203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}