The Cowboys came from behind to maintain their best start to a season in 17 years with a 46-24 defeat of the Dragons at Netstrata Jubilee Oval.
Trailing 18-4 midway through the first half, North Queensland piled on seven unanswered tries to secure their third win from the opening three matches of the season for the first time since 2006.
While the size of the scoreline was concerning for St George Illawarra coach Shane Flanagan, there was a lot to like about their attack and they had at least five more scoring opportunities that went begging.
The Cowboys overcame a horror start - with fullback Scott Drinkwater fumbling a Ben Hunt bomb and Tyrell Sloan crossing, only for the try to be disallowed because of a forward pass - to lead 22-18 at halftime.
Despite the Dragons early dominance, Murray Taulangi scored first for North Queensland in the sixth minute after a cut out pass from Drinkwater created an overlap for the Samoan winger.
Murray Taulagi Try
However, the home side had all of the running for the first quarter of the match, as the Cowboys struggled to contain the St George Illawarra right edge of Hunt, Jack Bird and Zac Lomax.
A long Bird pass across the face of Sloan enabled Lomax to cross untouched in the 11th minute and he raced around under the posts to give himself the easiest of conversion attempts and the Dragons a 6-4 lead.
Zac Lomax Try
Sloan scored next after prop Jack de Belin put Hunt through a gap near halfway and the star playmaker drew Drinkwater before sending Sloan racing away for a 15th minute try.
Dragons five-eighth Kyle Flanagan extended the lead to 18-4 when he dummied and stepped through the defence in the 20th minute, and they would have gone further ahead if Raymond Faitala-Mariner had held a Hunt grubber in-goal.
Kyle Flanagan Try
The bombed try proved a turning point as the Cowboys piled on three unanswered tries before halftime, with hooker Reece Robson putting Sam McIntyre over in the 26th minute to start the fightback.
North Queensland second-rower Griffin Neame beat Sloan to a Drinkwater grubber in the 33rd minute and the fullback regained the lead for the visitors in the 39th minute after Kyle Feldt tapped back a Chad Townsend bomb.
Griffin Neame Try
The Dragons started the second half strongly, with Lomax almost scoring, but a Drinkwater 40/20 kick got the Cowboys back in attacking position and Robson put Kulikefu Finefeuiaki for a try in the 50th minute.
Dearden was the next to score, after Drinkwater combined with Holmes, to send him racing for the tryline in the 54th minute.
Tom Dearden Try
Tries to Holmes and Townsend put the result beyond doubt before Lomax scored his second of the match in the 70th minute and the Dragons hung on to ensure they did not concede 50 points.
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Match snapshot
- North Queensland five-eighth Tom Dearden has scored a try in each of his side's three matches so far this season.
- Cowboys centre Val Holmes scored his 1000th career point when he converted Kulikefu Finefeuiaki's 50th minute try.
- Holmes ran a game high 247 metres with the ball and scored 18 points from a try and seven goals.
- Zac Lomax scored two tries and ran 142 metres with the ball in another impressive performance in his new position on the wing.
- Dragons debutant Jesse Marschke was placed on report for a high shot on Chad Townsend in the 24th minute.
- The Dragons have never conceded 50 points in a match at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium.
Play of the game
A rehearsed move paid dividends when winger Kyle Feldt leaped above the Dragons defenders for a perfectly placed Chad Townsend bomb to tap the ball back for Scott Drinkwater to fall over the try line and score just before halftime.
Scott Drinkwater Try
What they said
"We didn't handle that no try and what happened post that they went and scored 18 unanswered points. I thought there was some really good patches of football, we looked sharp every time we got into good field position and we scored tries but defensively we got blown away at the ruck so we need to do some work there. It is a new team, some new staff, new coaches and all so it's going to take some time but I'd like to think that we can be better than we showed defensively today. There was just some soft tries there. There's three or four on last tackle that we could have handled better and maybe at some points, the Cowboys competed a little bit harder than us," - Dragons coach Shane Flanagan.
Dragons: Round 3
"We showed some composure there in the the first half to get a lead at halftime. There was a couple of big momentum shifts ... so a couple of things fell our way but we had to dig in, get back to running hard and we played some nice footy. We weren't able to defend our errors in the first half ... but when you have a 12-point swing, stuff up a try scoring opportunity and then let one in the next set or two they are hard on your energy and you swing the energy in your opposition's favour and that is what happened today," - Cowboys coach Todd Payten.
Cowboys: Round 3
What's next
The Cowboys travel to Brisbane to meet the Broncos on Easter Friday, while the Dragons host the Sea Eagles at WIN Stadium next Saturday night.
St George Illawarra coach Shane Flanagan will be hoping to have hooker Jacob Liddle back after he missed the Cowboys match due to HIA protocols, while forwards Hame Sele (hamstring) and Jaydyn Su'A (quad) may be a chance.