Todd Payten was always described as a halfback in a prop’s body but his honesty as a coach has been just as valued by his players as his rugby league knowledge.

Payten is expected to soon be unveiled as Paul Green’s replacement at North Queensland, having impressed as a caretaker in charge of the Warriors.

In doing so, he will return to the club where he was an assistant between 2015 and 2018, a time where the Cowboys made two grand finals.

Payten is just nine years out of his playing days but he is far from new to coaching.

He won the Holden Cup with the Wests Tigers a year after his retirement, before briefly being one of the favourites to take Mick Potter’s job at the end of 2014.

He ended up at the Cowboys and took their under-20s side to within a week of the decider in 2015, before getting his chance at the Warriors this year.

“It was pretty clear early on he was going to make a good fist of it,” Robbie Farah said.

“He always had an ambition to be a coach. As a player he was always so skilful and really understood the game and had great knowledge of the game.

“He has great people skills and is a great communicator with a very calm persona.”

What’s stood out most to Farah about Payten’s turnaround of the Warriors has been his honesty.

Handed arguably the toughest situation any team has faced in decades, Payten has helped the Warriors to four wins in their past five games to suddenly be in finals contention.

“From a player’s perspective you want honesty from your coach and I think that’s what I saw with Toddy since he has come into the role,” Farah said.

“As a playing group it’s what you need to hear not what you want to hear.

“(Back at the Tigers) he never treated us any differently because we were ex-teammates.

“He was always brutally honest with any sort of feedback and any ideas he had or any thoughts on how to improve our game.”

Payten’s honesty was also a trait of his last time in Townsville, during his four years under Green.

“He was always really direct and very clear about what he wanted and what he thought. I liked that about him,” former Cowboys prop Matt Scott said.

“I don’t think there would have been too many people that could have brought the (Warriors) team together like that and got the results they’ve done.”