1997 North Queensland Cowboys season
21season in the club history
The 1997 North Queensland Cowboys season was the 3rd in the club's history. Coached by Tim Sheens and captained by Ian Roberts, they competed in the breakaway News Limited-run competition, the Telstra Cup.
Season summary
After an improved 1996 season, the club pulled off a major coup in signing three-time premiership winning coach Tim Sheens from the Canberra Raiders, who brought five players with him from his old club, including Australia and Queensland representative hooker Steve Walters. Former Australia and New South Wales prop Ian Roberts was brought in as captain as part of a major off-season rebuild in which 20 players were let go, including a number of foundation players.
The club, who were competing in News Limited's breakaway Super League competition, got off to a promising start after defeating the newly formed Adelaide Rams in the opening round of the season. The good times under Sheens and his new signings were short lived, as a four game losing streak followed. A win over the Auckland Warriors in Round 9 was followed by two consecutive draws, which included a 20-all draw against arch-rivals Brisbane, their best ever result against them at the time.
Back-to-back wins in Round 14 and 15 had the Cowboys sitting just four points outside the Top 5, but a three-game losing streak to end the season left the club languishing in last place. The Cowboys recorded their second wooden spoon in three seasons, with just five wins from 18 games. Despite the disappointing year, Tim Sheens signed a five-year contract renewal with the club.
“1997 North Queensland Cowboys season” enters the record as 21season in the club history. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what North, Queensland and Cowboys can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4592688. Authority coordinates are -19.316, 146.712. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1997 and 1996.
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This entry incorporates text from “1997 North Queensland Cowboys season” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.