Todd Payten has been confirmed as the replacement for premiership-winning Paul Green as North Queensland’s new NRL head coach.
The Cowboys confirmed Payten’s appointment on Friday, signing the 41-year-old to a three-year deal.
Payten will take up the position at the end of the 2020 season, once he has seen out the current campaign with the Warriors.
The ex-Wests Tigers player, who scored in the 2005 grand final over the Cowboys, has had an impressive caretaker stint with the Warriors following Stephen Kearney’s sacking in June.
Despite being located in Australia since early May, Payten has guided the Warriors to four wins in their past five matches to keep them with an outside chance of making this year’s finals.
The Cowboys have been on the hunt for a new coach following Green’s exit in July after a seven-year stint which included the club’s first premiership in 2015 and a grand-final defeat in 2017.
Payten was part of Green’s coaching staff at the Cowboys for the 2015 grand-final win.
He is the Cowboys’ eighth full-time head coach and the fourth since the late Graham Murray took over in 2002.
The Cowboys are languishing in 14th place and have lost their past nine games, including six defeats in a row under interim coach Josh Hannay.
It means for the third straight season the Cowboys won’t play finals and with just one win separating them from last place, they’re also at serious risk of picking up this year’s wooden spoon.