{"id":5028,"date":"2020-12-04T01:29:54","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T02:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=5028"},"modified":"2020-12-04T06:16:45","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T06:16:45","slug":"cowboys-coach-makes-call-on-holmes-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=5028","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys coach makes call on Holmes future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New Cowboys coach Todd Payten has confirmed Valentine Holmes will remain as the club&#x27;s first-choice fullback option.<\/p>\n<p>Payten, who back in September <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/nrl-news-todd-payten-named-north-queensland-cowboys-coach\/55034daf-49fa-4bd5-8f81-b6e8fd427968\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" title=\"signed a three-year deal to become the club&#x27;s 10th coach\">signed a three-year deal to become the club&#x27;s 10th coach<\/a> in its history, will have his work cut out for him when he looks to improve the squad, which finished 14th on the ladder with just five wins this season.<\/p>\n<p>A burning question among fans and pundits has been whether Holmes will remain at fullback after the former New York Jets practice squad member signed a monster six-year contract, worth about $750,000 per-season last off-season.<\/p>\n<p>Holmes, who started the 2020 campaign at fullback, was shifted to the wing at times in a year <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/valentine-holmes-ankle-injury-to-sideline-cowboys-star-for-weeks\/d5a168b7-d551-4ab7-8cd3-f5431b87698d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" title=\"hampered by an ankle injury\">hampered by an ankle injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But for now, Payten has made it clear Holmes will be the club&#x27;s number one option to play fullback with pre-season training duties already underway.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"6946a194-8f25-4ddf-a6f7-91924d8de4cd\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/6946a194-8f25-4ddf-a6f7-91924d8de4cd\" alt=\"Valentine Holmes of the Cowboys is tackled during the round three NRL match between the North Queensland Cowboys and the Gold Coast Titans\" data-width=\"1396\" data-height=\"785\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;Val will be spending the pre-season at fullback. It was a big ask for him last year to come back from the NFL, the physical demands with limited preparation,&quot; Payten told NRL.com.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;He carries the ball [well] as a fullback. There are some awareness parts of his game which could improve.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;At the moment he&#x27;s going to spend the pre-season at fullback along with one or two others.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Another option for the club could be young gun Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, who this year put his hand up for the No.1 jersey when Holmes was out. The speedster was scary in open space and could become a solution for Payten following a breakout year that saw him bag six tries from 14 appearances.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"6232aa2d-2918-438e-9f6c-c37ec2947dda\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/6232aa2d-2918-438e-9f6c-c37ec2947dda\" alt=\"Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow\" data-width=\"1396\" data-height=\"785\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Queensland rugby league legend <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/nrl-news-todd-payten-named-north-queensland-cowboys-coach\/55034daf-49fa-4bd5-8f81-b6e8fd427968\" title=\"Sam Thaiday earlier this admitted the Cowboys would be better to keep Holmes the wing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Sam Thaiday earlier this year claimed the Cowboys would be better to keep Holmes on the wing<\/a>, with Tabuai-Fidow to take on the fullback role.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I&#x27;d love to see him [Tabuai-Fidow] play fullback,&quot; Thaiday told Wide World of Sports&#x27; <em>QLDER.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&quot;I think Val&#x27;s a fantastic winger as well, so there&#x27;s an opportunity for him to play on the wing. He can score tries, and you want your winger to be finishers and that&#x27;s what Val is.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;He can do plenty of work coming out of trouble. I&#x27;d love to see Hammer at No.1.&quot;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>New Cowboys coach Todd Payten has confirmed Valentine Holmes will remain as the club&#x27;s first-choice fullback option. Payten, who back in September signed a three-year <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=5028\" title=\"Cowboys coach makes call on Holmes future\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5028"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5028"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5030,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5028\/revisions\/5030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}