Aaron Payne is an Australian rugby league

Rugby league

Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

 player. He has played for the North Queensland Cowboys

North Queensland Cowboys

The North Queensland Cowboys are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, Queensland. They compete in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby League premiership...

 in the National Rugby League

National Rugby League

The National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL's main competition, called the Telstra Premiership , is contested by sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one based in New Zealand...

 (NRL) competition throughout his professional career. His preferred position is hooker.

Born in Townsville, Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, Payne played as a junior for the Centrals Tigers club and attended Kirwan State High School

Kirwan State High School

Kirwan State High School is a coeducational state school located in Kirwan, Queensland, Australia, approximately from the Townsville CBD. It has 2,304 students and over 120 teaching staff, making it the biggest high school in the state and the largest in North Queensland and The former Thuringowa...

. His father represented Queensland

Queensland Rugby League

The Queensland Rugby Football League is the governing body for rugby league in Queensland. It is a member of the Australian Rugby League and selects the members of Queensland State of Origin teams....

 in 1979.

Payne started his first-grade career with the Cowboys in 2002. During the 2005 North Queensland Cowboys season, he was the only player to have played every game that year. He played at hooker in the 2005 NRL Grand Final

2005 NRL Grand Final

The 2005 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the 2005 National Rugby League season. It was played on the night of Sunday, 2 October at Sydney's Telstra Stadium between 4th-placed Wests Tigers and 5th-placed North Queensland Cowboys, the only two clubs in the...

, the Cowboys' first, which they lost to the Wests Tigers

Wests Tigers

The Wests Tigers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Sydney's mid-western suburbs. They have competed in the National Rugby League since they were formed at the end of the 1999 season as a joint-venture club between the Balmain Tigers and the Western Suburbs...

.

In 2006 and 2008, he was named as the Cowboys' Player of the Year. He joined that award with the Cowboys' players' player of the year and club person of the year in 2008. He is also the Cowboys' vice captain.

Payne is often considered an underrated player, operating in the shadows of high-profile Cowboys players such as Johnathan Thurston

Johnathan Thurston

Johnathan Dean Thurston is an Indigenous Australian professional rugby league footballer in the NRL with the North Queensland Cowboys whom he co-captains...

 and Matt Bowen

Matt Bowen

Matthew Jeremy "Matt" Bowen is an Australian rugby league player. He has spent his whole professional career with the North Queensland Cowboys in the National Rugby League , playing in over 200 matches and holding the club's record for the player with the most NRL appearances. He appeared in the...

. Former Australian captain Gorden Tallis

Gorden Tallis

Gorden James Tallis is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played from 1992 to 2004. He captained Australia and Queensland as well as the Brisbane Broncos club, with whom he won three premierships and one Clive Churchill Medal...

has described Payne as the "glue" that holds the Cowboys together.