The 2020 North Queensland Cowboys season was the 26th in the club's history. Coached by Paul Green and captained by Michael Morgan, they competed in the

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

's 2020 Telstra Premiership. The 2020 season was the club's first at their new home ground,

Queensland Country Bank Stadium North Queensland Stadium, commercially known as Queensland Country Bank Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in South Townsville, Queensland, Australia, primarily used for rugby league. History As part of Australia's 2022 FIFA World Cup bid in ...

, after 25 seasons at Willows Sports Complex. On 20 July, Green resigned as head coach after just three wins from the opening 10 games. He was replaced by assistant coach

Josh Hannay Josh Hannay (born 11 January 1980) is an Australian professional rugby league coach who is an assistant coach of the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the NRL and a former professional rugby league footballer who played as a in the 1990s and 2000s ...

, who took over as interim head coach until the end of the season.

Season summary

Milestones

* Round 1:

Valentine Holmes Valentine Holmes (born 24 July 1995) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays across the backline as a or er for the North Queensland Cowboys in the NRL and Australia at international level. He began his career with the ...

Esan Marsters Esan Marsters (born 17 August 1996) is a professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for the Huddersfield Giants in the Super League. He has played for the Cook Islands, New Zealand and the New Zealand Māori at international level. ...

and

Reece Robson Reece Robson (born 18 June 1998) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for the North Queensland Cowboys in the National Rugby League (NRL). He previously played for the St. George Illawarra Dragons in the NRL a ...

made their debuts for the club. * Round 1:

scored his first try for the club. * Round 2: The club played the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in the first match without fans in Australian first grade history. * Round 3:

scored his first try in the NRL. * Round 4: Tom Gilbert made his NRL debut. * Round 5:

Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow (born 5 September 2001), also known by the nickname of "Hammer", is an Australians, Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for the Dolphins (NRL), Dolphins in the National Rugby League. He has also ...

made his NRL debut. * Round 6:

Connelly Lemuelu Connelly Lemuelu (born 7 July 1998) is a professional rugby league footballer who plays as a and er for the Dolphins in the National Rugby League. He previously played for the North Queensland Cowboys in the NRL, and Samoa internationally. ...

made his NRL debut. * Round 6:

scored his first try for the club. * Round 10:

Daejarn Asi Daejarn Asi (born 15 August 2000) is a New Zealand professional rugby league footballer who plays as a and for the Parramatta Eels in the National Rugby League (NRL). He previously played for the North Queensland Cowboys, New Zealand War ...

made his NRL debut. * Round 10:

scored his first NRL try. * Round 11:

Ben Hampton Ben Hampton (born 29 February 1992) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a utility for the North Queensland Cowboys in the NRL. Hampton previously played for the Melbourne Storm and has played in a number of posi ...

played his 100th NRL game. * Round 13: Emry Pere made his NRL debut. * Round 13:

Francis Molo Francis Molo (born 3 September 1994) is a professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for the St George Illawarra Dragons in the NRL. He has played for both the Cook Islands and Samoa at international level. He previously played for ...

played his 50th NRL game. * Round 14:

Mitchell Dunn Mitchell Dunn (born 3 February 1997) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who currently works as a coach for the North Queensland Cowboys. Dunn played six seasons in the National Rugby League (NRL) for the North Queen ...

and

scored their first NRL tries. * Round 15: The club were held scoreless for the first time since Round 1, 2012. * Round 19:

Ben Condon Ben Condon (born 13 July 2000) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a forward for the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles in the National Rugby League (NRL). He previously played for the North Queensland Cowboys in the N ...

made his NRL debut.

Squad

Squad movement

Gains

Losses

Re-signings

Ladder

Fixtures

NRL Nines

The NRL Nines is a pre-season rugby league nines competition featuring all 16

clubs. The 2020 competition was played over two days on February 14 and 15 at

HBF Park Perth Rectangular Stadium (also known as HBF Park under naming rights) is a sports stadium in Perth, the capital of the Australian state of Western Australia. Located close to Perth's central business district, the stadium currently has a ma ...

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

. The Cowboys finished first in Pool 4 and defeated the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Gold Coast Titans and St George Illawarra Dragons on their way to winning the competition.

Pool Play

Finals

Pre-season

Regular season

Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

in Australia, the regular season was suspended after Round 2. On 9 April, the NRL announced that competition would re-commence on 28 May with a shortened 20-round regular season. On 21 May, the full revised draw was released From Round 7 onward, the Cowboys were allowed to host fans at their home games, starting with a limit of 2,000, before eventually rising to 10,000 from Round 9.

Statistics

Representatives

The following players have played a representative match in 2020.

Honours

Club

* Paul Bowman Medal: Jason Taumalolo *Players' Player:

Josh McGuire Joshua McGuire (born 2 March 1990) is a professional rugby league footballer who plays as a and for the Warrington Wolves in the Betfred Super League. He has played for Samoa and Australia at international level. He previously played for th ...

*Coach's Award:

*Member's Player of the Year:

Kyle Feldt Kyle Feldt (born 9 February 1992) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a er for the North Queensland Cowboys in the NRL. Feldt has played for the Prime Minister's XIII, and was a member of the Cowboys' 2015 NRL ...

*Club Person of the Year: John Asiata *Rookie of the Year:

Feeder Clubs

Queensland Cup

The Cowboys' three feeder clubs, the

Mackay Cutters The Mackay Cutters are a semi-professional rugby league football club based in Mackay, Queensland, Mackay, Queensland. They compete in Queensland's top rugby league competition, the Queensland Cup. The club was admitted to the Queensland Cup i ...

, Northern Pride and

Townsville Blackhawks The Townsville & Districts Blackhawks are an Australian semi-professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, Queensland. They compete in Queensland's top rugby league competition, the Queensland Cup. The club was admitted to the Que ...

, each played just one game before the

2020 Queensland Cup The 2020 Queensland Cup season was to be the 25th season of Queensland's top-level statewide rugby league competition run by the Queensland Rugby League. On 27 March, the competition, known as the Intrust Super Cup due to sponsorship from Intru ...

season was postponed and later cancelled due to the

Women's Team

QRL Women's Premiership The QRL Women's Premiership, known as the BMD Premiership due to sponsorship from BMD Group, is the top level of women's rugby league football in Queensland, Australia. Run by the Queensland Rugby League, the competition is Queensland's first s ...

The Cowboys' women's team, the

North Queensland Gold Stars The QRL Women's Premiership, known as the BMD Premiership due to sponsorship from BMD Group, is the top level of women's rugby league football in Queensland, Australia. Run by the Queensland Rugby League, the competition is Queensland's first s ...

, played just one game in the QRL Women's Premiership before the season was postponed and later cancelled due to the

References

{{coord, 27, 27, 53, S, 153, 0, 34, E, display=title North Queensland Cowboys seasons North Queensland Cowboys season