Club information | ||
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Full name | North Queensland Cowboys Rugby League Football Club |
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Nickname(s) | Cowboys | |
Colours |
Primary: Navy Grey Secondary: Yellow White |
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Founded | 30 November 1992 | |
Website | cowboys.com.au | |
Current details | ||
Ground(s) |
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CEO | Greg Tonner | |
Coach | Paul Green | |
Competition | National Rugby League | |
2017 season | 8th | |
Current season | ||
Uniforms | ||
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Records | ||
Premierships | 1 (2015) | |
Runners-up | 2 (2005, 2017) | |
Minor premiership | Nil | |
World Club Challenge | 1 (2016) | |
Auckland Nines | 1 (2014) | |
Wooden spoons | 3 (1995, 1997SL, 2000) | |
Most capped | 270 - Matthew Bowen, Johnathan Thurston | |
Highest points scorer | 2,016 - Johnathan Thurston |
The North Queensland Cowboys are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, the largest city in North Queensland. They compete in Australasia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Since their foundation in 1995, the club has appeared in three grand finals (2005, 2015 and 2017) winning in 2015, and has reached the finals ten times. The team's management headquarters and home ground, the Willows Sports Complex, currently known as 1300SMILES Stadium due to sponsorship rights, are located in the Townsville suburb of Kirwan.
The Cowboys were admitted to the premiership for the 1995 ARL season. They played in the breakaway Super League competition in 1997 before continuing to compete in the re-unified National Rugby League competition the following year. After running into financial trouble in 2001, the club was taken over by News Limited. In 2007, the team was sold by News Limited to the Cowboys League Club.
In 2015, the Cowboys played in the first all-Queensland grand final, defeating the Brisbane Broncos 17-16 in golden point to win their first premiership.
With the success of the Broncos in 1988, speculation intensified as to if the NSWRL would admit a new team based in North Queensland. In 1993, the NSWRL announced that North Queensland would enter the competition in 1995, along with three other new sides. One of the major difficulties that faced the club in their early years was attracting followers from the more established Queensland-based Winfield Cup side, the Brisbane Broncos. This was exacerbated by an initial lack of onfield success and stability. In their first two seasons, the Cowboys had eight different captains and finished last in their inaugural season.