Payten threatens axe on ‘bullied’ Cowboys

Scott Bailey | June 23, 2025

Todd Payten has warned he could swing the axe after admitting North Queensland were bullied by the Sydney Roosters as they fell to a second straight thrashing.

Payten described the Cowboys’ 42-8 loss as looking like boys against men at times, as his team conceding four tries in the space of 10 minutes in the second half.

Halfback Tom Dearden also conceded he was “horrible”, backing up four days after winning his first State of Origin game wearing the Queensland No.7 jersey.

Semi-finalists last year, the Cowboys are now in an almighty rut.

Payten’s men have won just one match since Magic Round, dropping five and drawing one to Penrith.

They have let in an average of 36 points a game through that period, including 100 points alone in the past fortnight to the Dolphins and Cowboys.

Questions also remain around the halves pairing of Dearden and Jaxon Purdue, with the latter moved from centre to five-eighth a month ago.

But their biggest issue has been a woeful completion rate through that period, with Payten labelling them the NRL’s worst team for errors out of their own end.

Adding to that is the fact the Cowboys have completed at above 75 per cent just twice in their past seven games.

Asked after the loss to the Roosters whether changes were possible, Payten indicated it was on his mind.

“We’ll be considering it, definitely, off the back of the past few weeks,” he said.

“We’ll have a look at what is underneath and then reassess and get to work.”

Payten also refused to use the Origin period as an excuse, with the Cowboys having four players coming in and out of camp in the past month.

“It’s not an excuse, far from it,” Payten said. 

“Not a contributing factor one little bit. 

“You look at some other teams across the competition (who) have handled it perfectly and we have done so in the past. So it’s irrelevant.

“It’s disappointing, and far from good enough.

“We got bullied, it was men against boys there for a little bit and that’s concerning.”

Payten’s threat came as Dearden also made a scathing assessment of his own performance, which included conceding an intercept pass for a Mark Nawaqanitawase try.

The Cowboys had balls hitting the ground in attack, while Dearden was responsible for five missed tackles.

“The body felt good, I was ready to go,” Dearden said of backing up from Origin. 

“I’m really disappointed in my performance. I thought I was horrible tonight.”