North Queensland Cowboys coach Todd Payten snaps at journalist after devastating defeat by Cronulla leaves his side’s season hanging by a thread

An angry Todd Payten was in an irritable mood after Cronulla’s defeat of North Queensland, and fired back at a journalist during a heated press conference.

The Cowboys let a six-point lead slip and suffered a devastating 32-12 loss to the Sharks on Thursday night, threatening their finals hopes in a dismal season.

North Queensland are outside the eight on 28 points, while the Knights and Rabbitohs are in seventh and eighth on 29 and 28 points respectively, but have a game in hand.

When asked if he took a ‘relaxed’ approach to training, Payten responded angrily.

“We hear that the preparation was quite relaxed this week, was that a mistake?” asked the reporter.

“Were you at training?” joked Payten.

“I think I heard some pre-match conversations, Jason also said it was a more relaxed week,” the journalist replied.

‘Our training sessions were short, spicy and intense. Our group responds better when they are relaxed,” Payten said.

“When I’m excited or constantly with our players, we know that pushes my energy to them and they tighten up.

“There was no fuss or hijinx, everyone was focused and doing their job. We ended up just being outplayed.

“We put some pressure on ourselves and played a good team.”

Payten also paid tribute to Jeremiah Nanai, who was forced onto the field after receiving multiple pain-relieving injections to play against the Sharks.

The backrower took a serious blow to Parramatta in round 21 and was widely expected to miss this week’s match.

“It was pretty brave of the lad, he had to be sewn for training, sewn before the game and at half time,” said Payten.

“Makes us a better team, so he will be painful. He’s got eight days to get going before we play against the Dolphins on Friday night.”