Super League-linked NRL half-back makes decision on future with 2026 switch revealed
Tom Duffy pictured during a North Queensland Cowboys training session in 2025 - Image credit: North Queensland Cowboys
Highly-rated North Queensland Cowboys youngster Tom Duffy will join fellow NRL outfit Brisbane Broncos ahead of 2026, according to reports Down Under.
Duffy – who turned 22 earlier this week – has been a shining star as he has risen through the youth ranks, representing Queensland at under-19s level as well as donning a shirt for Australia’s schoolboys.
The half-back made his NRL bow at the start of this year for the Cowboys, but hasn’t seen his first-grade career take off as he had hoped, spending a large chunk of the season back in the Queensland Cup.
Earlier this year, a loan to Super League was even mooted: with the starlet off-contract at the end of the year and wanting to play his way into a new deal either with the Cowboys or elsewhere.
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Super League-linked NRL half-back makes decision on future with 2026 switch revealed
That Super League switch never came to fruition, but reports Down Under suggest that he will be on the move ahead of 2026, with the Broncos his destination.
Australian outlet The Daily Telegraph state that Duffy will serve as a back-up to Adam Reynolds in Brisbane, but is hoping to become the icon’s long-term replacement.
Notably, the 35-year-old himself had toyed with the idea of a move to Super League in 2026, and had that happened, it’s believed that Hull KR would have been the club he joined.
But Reynolds has spent his entire career Down Under, and has been tabled a new deal by the Broncos which he’s expected to take up.
If Duffy is successful in establishing himself as the veteran’s long-term replacement, he’ll have to displace up and coming Broncos ace Coby Black.
The 22-year-old will no doubt back himself to do so though having shone so brightly in the youth ranks Down Under: being named the Queensland Cup’s half-back of the year in 2024 after a campaign which saw him rack up 33 assists in a Northern Pride shirt as well as finishing as the competition’s top points-scorer.
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