Off-contract Cowboys star Michael Morgan is using retiring half Johnathan Thurston as a sounding board as he weighs up whether to commit his immediate future to North Queensland.
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The beaten grand finalists have a ready-made succession plan after Thurston retires, but it all hinges on Morgan signing a new deal to stay in Townsville and lead the club in the post JT era.
While Morgan is expected to attract interest from rival NRL clubs after a breakout 2017 that landed him a grand final appearance, State Of Origin series win and a World Cup, the expectation is he will ultimately remain at the Cowboys.
Should that pan out as Thurston hopes, the club will mould their playing roster around Morgan and long-term committed powerhouse Jason Taumalolo in 2019 and beyond.
"He's had a couple of conversations with me about it, more about how not to let it affect your footy because he's talking about his future," Thurston told Fairfax Media. "How he approaches training, how he doesn't let that affect him when he comes into training and when he's playing footy. The sooner he can get that done and organised the better it is.
"He's now one of the leaders of our club and that's been good to see. Finally he understands how good he is and how good he can be and no doubt, hopefully, he can put pen to paper at the club and we can really build a team around him.
"Jase is locked down for a lot of years, certainly those two boys, we've probably seen the growth in them two the most over the last 12 months. We've still got Matty Scott and Gavin Cooper there, but certainly those two boys are the future of the Cowboys."
Thurston will make his long-anticipated comeback for the Cowboys in Cairns next weekend, in a trial against the Wests Tigers.
It will be his first appearance for the Townsville club since he ruined his shoulder in the second State Of Origin game last season, stranded on 299 NRL games.
Prop Matthew Scott has also been cleared to play in the trial after missing most of last season with a knee injury.
The Cowboys were last year's fairytale story through the NRL finals, scraping into the top eight in the final round before downing Cronulla, Parramatta and the Sydney Roosters en route to the grand final.
Morgan was particularly instrumental in Thurston's absence as the chief playmaker, and stood admirably alongside Cooper Cronk in the halves for Mal Meninga's World Cup side to cover his injured club teammate.
"I would like him to stay at the Cowboys, no doubt about that but we understand these days that it's a business," Thurston said.
"The last 12 months that he's had he's probably got a few clubs chasing him as well. Being a Townsville boy, a local product, hopefully he stays and finishes his career at the Cowboys."
It will be his first appearance for the Townsville club since he ruined his shoulder in the second State Of Origin game last season, stranded on 299 NRL games.
Prop Matthew Scott has also been cleared to play in the trial after missing most of last season with a knee injury.
The Cowboys were last year's fairytale story through the NRL finals, scraping into the top eight in the final round before downing Cronulla, Parramatta and the Sydney Roosters en route to the grand final.
Morgan was particularly instrumental in Thurston's absence as the chief playmaker, and stood admirably alongside Cooper Cronk in the halves for Mal Meninga's World Cup side to cover his injured club teammate.
"I would like him to stay at the Cowboys, no doubt about that but we understand these days that it's a business," Thurston said.
"The last 12 months that he's had he's probably got a few clubs chasing him as well. Being a Townsville boy, a local product, hopefully he stays and finishes his career at the Cowboys."
Thurston will play his 300th NRL game in round one against the Cronulla Sharks in Townsville.
"I saw the surgeon probably three weeks ago and he was really happy with it, got the all clear to start contact work and had an opposed session the other day and pulled up really good from that," Thurston said. "I'm looking forward to getting back out there and getting some footy under my belt.
"To play 300 games, I haven't really reflected on it too much or thought about it too much to tell you the truth. It's been a long time coming. To have my family there and close friends there, to be part of the 300 club alongside so many great players that are there, also to bring it up the same weekend as Billy Slater will be nice as well."
Thurston was in Sydney on Saturday as part of the week-long festival of indigenous rugby league, alongside some of the game's biggest stars including Greg Inglis, Dane Gagai and Ash Taylor.
They undertook a host of cultural activities in the morning before heading to Redfern Oval to watch the Laurie Daley coached First Nation Goannas take on the New Zealand Maori.
The Goannas won an entertaining contest in front of about 3000 fans, prevailing 22-16 after trailing in the first half in a match that followed two spectacular war dances by the rival teams.
In the women's game which was played as a curtain-raiser to the men's, the First Nation Gems downed the New Zealand Maori 18-0 over four 15-minute quarters.
