The North Queensland Cowboys have been linked with four hookers from the NRL and Super League competitions as they look to find a replacement for Reece Robson who will depart at the end of the season.
The current dummy-half of the NSW Blues, Robson will leave for the Sydney Roosters at the end of the year giving the Cowboys and coach Todd Payten less than 12 months to find a quality replacement to take over from in the No.9 jumper.
Yet to find a hooker to accompany Scott Drinkwater, Tom Dearden and Jake Clifford in the spine for next season, they have previously been linked to trio Jayden Brailey, Tyson Smoothy and Reed Mahoney.
However, they missed out on Brailey and Smoothy who agreed to sign with the Canberra Raiders and Wakefield Trinity. Meanwhile, Mahoney has never looked like leaving Belmore.
Attempting to find a replacement for Robson, the Cowboys have been linked with Billy Walters (Broncos), Brad O'Neill (Wigan), Danny Walker (Warrington) and Tanah Boyd (Warriors), per News Corp.
While it's hard to imagine either O'Neill (2029) or Walker (2029) making the move to Townsville due to them signing long-term deals with their respective teams, it is understood that the Cowboys have already approached Boyd's management about a potential return to Queensland.
Signing with the New Zealand Warriors at the end of last season from the Gold Coast Titans, Boyd has yet to play an NRL match for the club and is off-contract at the end of the season but does have a mutual option in his contract for 2026.
Once touted as the future of the Titans' halves, Boyd was continually overlooked in favour of other options, and the same is now happening at the Warriors with Luke Metcalfe, Te Maire Martin and Chanel Harris-Tavita all in front of him - Luke Hanson and Jett Cleary are also coming through the ranks.
On the other hand, Walters's future at Red Hill remains uncertain after young gun Blake Mozer agreed to a two-year extension with the club, Cory Paix has started in most games this season, and Ben Hunt has shown that he is still a quality player and will be used as the primary option.
โI feel the competition,โ Walters said, recently.
โBeing honest, Ben Hunt will probably move there (hooker) when Ezra Mam comes back.
โIt's important to be in the starting side and I want to make sure Madge can't leave me out of the team if I'm playing well enough.
โThere's a lot of talent. There's not one person who can take my spot, there's a couple. But it's good. I enjoy the competition.โ
