With the addition of veteran 200+ game North Queensland Cowboys hooker Aaron Payne, Benji Marshall has continued the rebuilding of his Wests Tigers staff.
Payne will make the move to Sydney to take over the club’s NSW Cup outfit at the Western Suburbs Magpies, a role that will work closely with Marshall’s coaching staff.
Payne, who retired at the end of 2012 with 219 NRL games under his belt for the Cowboys as well as a single appearance for the NRL All Stars in 2012, is an ex-junior Origin player and has spent his post-playing days stationed in Townsville holding various roles for the Cowboys.
He has spent the last five years as head coach of QLD Cup outfit the Townsville Blackhawks, having taken over from Kristian Woolf. Enjoying some success, he also had a brief stint in 2020 as an NRL assistant coach, while prior to that he coached the Cowboys academy program and under-20s side.
A former two-time Paul Bowman Medalist, his departure from the Blackhawks follows yesterday’s news that the South Sydney Rabbitohs had signed on with the Townsville-based club to become their NRL affiliate, ending the Cowboys’ role with the club.
It now means Payne will coach the Western Suburbs Magpies for the next two years, and given the Tigers’ desired position to build as a development club, his role in bringing players through to be first-grade ready will be critical.
In a club statement confirming the news, Payne remarked, “I think it’s a really exciting time to be involved with such a great club.”
“The coaching staff leading the NRL team is young and energetic, and I am looking forward to collaborating closely with Benji and the team.
“Wests Tigers pathways program is one of the biggest in the game, and for me, that’s also an enormously exciting challenge.”
