The North Queensland Cowboys have ruled out a move to sign a veteran from one of their biggest rivals despite him being a former Origin player for Queensland.
Struggling to get game time at the beginning of the season after finding himself behind Deine Mariner and Jesse Arthars in the pecking order, Corey Oates has been continually linked with an exit from Red Hill.
Off-contract at the end of the season, it's hard to see him remaining at the club beyond 2024 despite playing 203 games and scoring 119 tries for the Broncos.
Although he has been previously linked to the Cowboys, Todd Payten revealed that they are not looking for a winger and he is not high on their radar at the moment because of the depth the club have in that position.
โCorey has been a very good player for a long time,โ Cowboys coach Todd Payten said viaย The Courier Mail.
โWe have a bit of depth in that area.
"We have Semi Valemei doing some good things in the Queensland Cup, Tom Chester can potentially play on the wing, then we have Viliami Vailea to support our main guys Kyle Feldt and Murray (Taulagi).
โYou never say never, but he's not high on our radar at this stage.โ
The last member of the club's 2015 Grand Final team left on the roster, Oates has been a mainstay of the team in the past and represented Queensland in the State of Origin arena nine times but has been axed in favour of younger players.
Recently, he has managed to find his way back into the team, coming off the interchange bench due to many injuries to key players such as Reece Walsh and Payne Haas.
