North Queensland have signed outside back Jaxson Paulo on a two-year deal and still have two spots available in their top 30 for next season.
The 25-year-old was given a release by Manly to join the Cowboys. He has scored 63 tries in 63 NRL games for the Roosters, South Sydney and the Sea Eagles.
Paulo's acquisition means the Cowboys now have 28 spots filled in their top squad for 2025.
Veteran prop Jordan McLean is one of them. While not listed on the official NRL contract list, AAP has confirmed the 33-year-old 2017 premiership winner will be back in 2025 for the Cowboys.
North Queensland also remain confident of re-signing NSW hooker Reece Robson beyond 2025, with discussions to ramp up when he returns from holidays.
Former Cowboys centre Valentine Holmes has joined St George Illawarra, while winger and 2015 grand final hero Kyle Feldt signed with St Helens, opening up a vacancy for Paulo to complement two of the club's rising stars.
“We are really lucky that we think we have a couple of great young players in the outside backs in Zac Laybutt and Rob Derby, but we needed to put some support around them with good NRL players," Cowboys football general manager Micheal Luck told AAP.
“Jaxson came across our radar and Manly were willing to release him, so we jumped in pretty quick and signed him.
“Rob is a big winger and Zac is tall and rangy for a centre, so Jaxson is a point of difference there. He is a super-skilful player and very quick and we are looking forward to seeing how he develops further in our system."
The Cowboys have also given Papua New Guinea fullback Morea Morea a chance this pre-season after he impressed in the Pacific Championships.
Morea is on the Cowboys’ list with what is termed a “train and replacement contract”, where a player gets paid $1200 per week to train for as long as they are on the list. He will provide competition and depth in the outside backs, and could secure an NRL deal if he can impress.
“We learned some lessons several years ago when we went in with a settled list thinking we had all the ingredients, so we have taken a different tack the last couple of years and kept a few roster spots open to see how the pre-season and early season unfolded," Luck said.
"We made signings this year with Harrison Edwards and Braidon Burns to bolster positions that we needed depth in. That worked really well for us, so we are going to take the same attitude and strategy into next year."
The Cowboys are not concerned that NSW rake Robson is not yet secured long-term beyond 2025. The 26-year-old has been away with the Kangaroos squad and is now on a break.
“We want to keep him and he wants to stay, so hopefully it is not a hard conversation," Luck said.
