North Queensland Cowboys coach Todd Payten has revealed that he wants to remain in charge of the club beyond the end of his current deal in 2023.
Speculation has previously linked Payten with a possible shock move away from Townsville.
The coach has become a highly targeted one after taking the Cowboys from the scrapheap to the penthouse in 2022. Entering the season without lofty ambitions and on the back of a bottom four finish in 2021, the Cowboys have emerged as a premiership hopeful throughout the course of the current campaign.
The former Raiders, Roosters and Tigers player joined the Cowboys from the Warriors ahead of the 2021 season and has gone from under the pump to chasing a new deal.
He told reporters on Friday that is exactly what he wants, suggesting he has no intentions of leaving Townsville in the near future.
"The club are well aware of how much I love the town and the club," he said on Friday.
"That'll get sorted when the time is right and I've got no doubt that it will."
Payten can steer the Cowboys into the top two with wins over the final two rounds of the season, although the club have hardly been dealt an easy run to the finish line, with the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Penrith Panthers - both of last year's grand finalists - laying ahead of them.