{"id":543625,"date":"2026-03-16T07:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T07:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/543625\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T07:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T07:55:09","slug":"cowboys-confirm-new-deal-for-vital-part-of-nrl-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/543625\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys confirm new deal for “vital” part of NRL squad"},"content":{"rendered":"

Injured North Queensland Cowboys<\/a> forward Thomas Mikaele<\/a> has confirmed he will extend his time with the club, signing a contract extension through to the end of 2028.<\/p>\n

The two-year extension takes him off the open market, which he has been on since November 1 when all players off-contract at the end of 2026 were able to commence negotiations with rival outfits.<\/p>\n

The forward, who arrived in Townsville during 2024 on a development deal, has played 23 games for the club, including Round 1 in Las Vegas off the bench this year where he was injured.<\/p>\n

He is anticipated to be back in the coming weeks, and should slot straight back into Payten’s struggling outfit who had their pants pulled down by the Wests Tigers<\/a> over the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are delighted Tom has agreed to extend his time in North Queensland,\u201d Cowboys Recruitment Manager Clint Zammit said in a club statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cTom is a wonderful example of how hard work and dedication can change the trajectory of your career. He came to our club on a Development List contract after short stays at different clubs in the NRL<\/a> and Super League<\/a> and is now a vital member of our squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a powerful runner of the ball and provides a point of difference to our attack with his offloading.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to his contributions to our club on and off the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cowboys have finally provided a chance for Mikaele to settle after a wild couple of years.<\/p>\n

Starting his career at the Wests Tigers<\/a> in 2019 where he played 66 games, he moved to Warrington in mid-2022, back to the Gold Coast in mid 2023, then back to Warrington before the same season had ended. He joined the Cowboys in 2024.<\/p>\n

It’s understood Mikaele could be back from his current knee injury as early as Round 4 when the Cowboys are due to face the Melbourne Storm<\/a> in Townsville.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Injured North Queensland Cowboys forward Thomas Mikaele has confirmed he will extend his time with the club, signing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-543625","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\/543625","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=543625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}