Cricket
Racing
Rugby
League
Motorsport
Football
Golf
Combat Sports
Basketball
Tennis
Other Sports
Sport Nation
Meninga and Parker praise Payten for swinging the axe
Charles Goodsir • March 12th, 2025 2:25 pm
SEN’s Corey Parker has backed the call from North Queensland Cowboys coach Todd Payten to drop Australian and Queensland back rower Jeremiah Nanai from their Round 2 clash against Cronulla.
Nanai was omitted from the Cowboys side that were humbled 42-12 in their opening round clash against Manly.
Parker said Payten’s players had to be held accountable for their lack of defensive pressure and that there were no excuses for Nanai or the rest of the squad.
“For Jeremiah Nanai, you are a back rower. You have the ability to make tackles,” Parker said on SENQ Breakfast.
“I understand you have your left and right backrowers but don’t even get me started on that.
“I can't for the life of me understand why kids these days say that they play on the left side. What do you mean you play on the left side?
“You are playing football. You play wherever. They are too structured.
“Some of the Cowboys performances were unacceptable and Nanai has been in this position before so I expect him to bounce back.
“He’s an elite attacking player but on the weekend, he only made three runs 20 metres.
“He also had 20 tackles with four misses. That’s not up to standard.”
Current Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga echoed Parker’s statements and believes Payten sent a strong message to his playing group.
“Statistically, Nanai had a very poor game and a lot of line breaks came through his side,” Meninga said on SENQ Breakfast.
“Payten’s made a statement and that’s fine after that sort of performance. It’s one of his better players and it wasn’t good enough.
“The standard wasn’t good enough so he has to go back to (Queensland Cup) and work on his game.
“The players now know that the coach is fair dinkum and they have to get their act in order.”
The Cowboys host the Sharks in Townsville on Saturday night.
