John Asiata’s brilliant start to the season earned the North Queensland Toyota Cowboys forward a promotion to the starting side in Round 5.

The 25-year-old responded with a man of the match performance in a gutsy Cowboys loss.

Asiata looked dangerous every time he touched the ball, running for 107 metres from 15 carries, while also chipping in 33 tackles in his 42 minutes on the field.

Asiata has regularly been among the Cowboys top performers in 2019 and Cowboys head coach Paul Green spoke glowingly of the skillful middle forward upon announcing his Tropic Petroleum man of the match at post-match presentations at Cowboys Leagues Club.

“I was a lot happier tonight with the way we went about the game, we played with a lot more intent and we showed a bit more character throughout the game. We didn’t get the result, but it was certainly a much better performance,” Green said.

“The guy we gave man of the match to started the game, he had been coming off the bench to begin the year, but he has been playing consistently well and really straightens us up in attack and that is Johnny Asiata.”