'Pretty silly': Teammate shuts down ugly Jason Taumalolo rumours

The North Queensland Cowboys leadership group insists there is no truth to explosive reports of a rift between coach Todd Payten and superstar forward Jason Taumalolo.

The relationship between the Cowboys mentor and his star player and captain dominated much of the discussion around their 2021 season, and the issue shows no sign of abating in 2022.

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Taumalolo - who is on a reported 10-year, $10 million deal with the Cowboys - played only 15 matches in 2021 due to multiple injuries.

Despite frequently insisting that he wanted to be an 80-minute player, Taumalolo often found his match time limited as Payten did his best to juggle the 2016 Dally M Medal winner's workload.

In the first match of the new campaign, Taumalolo was again restricted to just 51 minutes in the home loss against the Bulldogs, where he mustered 136 running metres.

Former Queensland State of Origin star Ben Te’o this week suggested that the relationship between player and coach appears to be untenable.

“It started off at the start of last year with Todd Payten coming out in one of his first press conferences and sort of criticising Taumalolo and that sort of rumour has never gone away really,” Te’o said on Triple M’s The Rush Hour.

“The fact that he is on limited minutes, he is on a big multi-year contract of a million dollars, something is going to have to give there because at the moment Todd’s not playing him enough minutes.

“Maybe he doesn’t trust Jason on the field for that long, something needs to happen, one needs to go maybe.

“I don’t think it is going to last, and they can come out in the media and say, ‘No we are fine with Jason, he is staying here to see out his deal’ — but when they get a good offer and both parties are happy I reckon you will see him move on go to another team."

Cowboys shut down talk of rift between captain and coach

Members of the Cowboys playing group have shot down those suggestions, with Jordan McLean - who skippered the side in Taumalolo's absence last year - rubbishing the reports.

"I think it's pretty silly to be honest," McLean told reporters on Wednesday.

"Hulky (Taumalolo) loves it up here and him and Toddy have a great relationship - it's just typical outside noise.

"Maybe if we win last week none of this talk is here, so our job is to go out there and win each week."

The Cowboys skipper entered round one without any trial minutes under his belt due to a hamstring complaint, but Payten is confident the wrecking-ball will fire again as the season progresses.

"He's got a point to prove I guess," Payten said.

"There's been a lot of conjecture around him and his involvement in the club, and I like when people poke the bear."

Following their disappointing 6-4 loss to Canterbury, the Cowboys finish their two-game home start with a clash against Canberra on Saturday.

Young playmaker Tom Dearden says the onus is on himself and halves partner Chad Townsend to deliver after completing just 65 per cent of their sets in their first NRL hit-out together.

"Being in the halves you take the brunt of the loss," he told reporters.

"I don't think we built enough pressure and put enough fatigue into the opposition to really finish them off at the end.

"So it was disappointing and probably a bit annoying not being able to finish the game on the weekend and win it.

"But, we've just got to move on from that now and build into this week coming against the Canberra Raiders."

with AAP

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