The North Queensland Toyota Cowboys have today announced their Queensland Cup affiliate club arrangements for the 2024 season.
After extensive consultation, the Cowboys have reached confirmed agreements with both Far North Queensland’s Northern Pride and the Mackay Cutters for Queensland Cup allocations for 2024.
North Queensland’s NRL squad will be allocated evenly between the Cutters and Pride, with players not selected in Todd Payten’s 17 to be eligible to play Queensland Cup each week.
Both the Cutters and Pride will send players to the Cowboys for training blocks in the pre-season, which begins on November 1.
Cutters and Pride coaches will visit The Hutchinson Builders Centre to shadow Payten and his coaching staff during the pre-season as well as be provided further development opportunities throughout the year.
“We are thrilled to reach agreements with the Pride and Cutters for 2024, two clubs who share values closely aligned with the North Queensland Cowboys,” Cowboys CEO Jeff Reibel said.
“Cairns and Mackay are two hugely important areas in the Cowboys footprint and these agreements cement our commitment to both the growth of rugby league and providing a path to the NRL across the entirety of our region.”
Cowboys General Manager of Football Micheal Luck indicated the club is comfortable reverting to a two-affiliate model and will embrace a system which was successfully utilised from 2008 to 2014, where the Northern Pride and Mackay Cutters both won QLD Cup premierships with significant allocations of Cowboys contracted players.
“We are excited about the opportunity we have in 2024 to allocate the players not playing NRL for the Cowboys to clubs who have player development and progression as core parts of their values system,” Luck said.
“Incoming Pride Coach Eric Smith and incumbent Cutters’ mentor Michael Comerford have proven track records of preparing players for the challenges of the NRL arena are both clearly aligned with the philosophies of Todd Payten and our coaching team.
“We look forward to welcoming them and their staff spending time with us during the season and both teams playing curtain raisers at Queensland Country Bank Stadium in 2024.”
Reibel and Luck will travel to both Mackay (Friday) and Cairns (next Wednesday) to formally launch the partnerships.
