After spending the majority of the first three seasons of his career beginning games from the bench, Coen Hess finally nailed down a spot in the North Queensland Toyota Cowboys starting side in 2018.

The 22-year-old started from the interchange in Rounds 1 and 2, but was moved to the second-row by head coach Paul Green against Melbourne in Round 3 and would remain there for the rest of the season.

Hess missed only one game in 2018, the Round 13 victory over Manly, which was through his State of Origin commitments with Queensland.

He played all three games of the Origin series for Queensland and was one of their best in the Game Three victory over NSW at Suncorp Stadium.

Hess enjoyed a number of brilliant individual performances in 2018, but his effort in Round 3 against Melbourne shapes as the standout.

He scored two tries, made three line-breaks, broke a whopping 10 tackles, ran for 153 metres and made 21 tackles in a 30-14 loss to the Storm at AAMI Park.

2018 stats:

Games: 23

Tries: 7

Linebreaks: 10

Tackle breaks: 63

Average run metres: 99

Average tackles: 32