Knights - 36
Cowboys - 18
It was as good as over with Newcastle up 22-0 after 22 minutes. The Cowboys defence was non-existent; just a sieve letting swirls of blue and red constantly wash through.
There were no answers, no matter how much yapping Willie Mason was doing during the team's regular group excursions behind the goal-line.
By halftime it was 30-6, indicating the Cowboys had yielded completely. The losses of key playmaker Johnathan Thurston to his shoulder injury and fiery lock Luke O'Donnell to his indisciplined temper had left them vulnerable.
But North Queensland was not finished. They clawed their way back to 30-18 in the second half and almost threw the game wide open had it not been for a try-saving tackle from George Ndaira in the 64th minute.
The Cowboys had another opportunity with back-to-back sets of six in the 70th but it was wasted when hooker Anthony Watts grubbered to nowhere on the fourth tackle.
Newcastle would be disappointed to have let such complacency set in, even if they have now doubled their competition points to four in their first win since pipping the Bulldogs in round one.
Tellingly in the first half, Newcastle had 59 per cent of the possession with players swarming left and right to capitalise once the Cowboys had been broken in.
The Cowboys missed 22 tackles to the hosts' eight in the opening 40 minutes while the Knights penetrated the line on seven occasions. That was complemented by four spells when they had three consecutive sets of six.
Cameron Ciraldo got across using pure strength, Keith Lulia could have sent his ball through at least another two sets of hands and Cory Paterson was on the end of pass-the-parcel.
Isaac De Gois glided through while Cooper Vuna was little more than a finisher in his hat-trick, especially for his first where he was on the end of some fingertip magic from Junior Sau who did his Kiwis chances no harm for the Anzac test. The only respite for the Cowboys in the first half was Ashley Graham threading a grubber through for Shannon Gallant to scoop up after going through captain and fullback Kurt Gidley in his return.
The Cowboys' second half resurgence saw strong efforts from Mason, Matthew Scott and Scott Bolton with the ball in hand but they couldn't match the power demonstrated by the Knights early on - when backs such as Sau and Vuna revelled with space to run.
Knights 36 (C. Ciraldo, K. Lulia, C. Paterson, I. De Gois, C. Vuna 3 tries, K.Gidley 4 goals), Cowboys 18 (S. Gallant, J. Williams, A. Graham tries, J. Williams 2 goals, T. Williams goal). Halftime: 30-6.
