The Cowboys were the only club to have six representatives in State of Origin but they played like a team bereft of talent on Saturday night on home turf. 

If selectors were picking teams based on the 80 minutes displayed against the Warriors, there would be no Cowboys lining up at the MCG on June 26 for Origin II. 

The Warriors registered their third win in a row with a thumping 42-12 victory over the Cowboys to leapfrog their opponents to be just one point outside the top eight. 

Referee Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski raised eyebrows when he sin-binned opposing playmakers Chad Townsend and Chanel Harris-Tavita midway through the second half. 

CHT dropped the ball on Townsend’s head after a tackle and the veteran Cowboy pushed and shoved a couple of Warriors in a minor skirmish but the ref banished them both for 10 minutes. 

“You can’t be banned for that. He didn’t throw it, he dropped it,” former Penrith skipper Greg Alexander said in bemusement on Fox League commentary while watching Harris-Tavita’s indiscretion. “Why did we need to send anyone to the sin bin from that?”

Ex-Maroons centre Brent Tate added: “That’s embarrassing.”

The Warriors roared out to a 22-0 lead with a first-half blitz to silence the crowd of 23,000-plus Cowboys fans. 

A try against the run of play just before the break cut the gap to 16 heading into the second stanza but the Warriors closed out the win in fine style. 

Warriors fullback Charnz Nicoll-Klokstad spun out of a tackle in the eighth minute to kick off a three-try burst by the mid point of three first half. 

Addin Fonua-Blake pushed through turnstile goal-line defence and Mitch Barnett was met with slightly more resistance as they barged over from close range. 

The Warriors dominated possession andfield position, translating into a fourth strike on the scoreboard in the 33rd minute via Rocco Berry. 

Tom Dearden stemmed the one-way flow of points when he scooted into space from near his own goal line and found Scott Drinkwater streaking away to reduce the half-time margin by six. 

But any hope of a Cowboys comeback was kyboshed in the 53rd minute when stand-in halfback Te Maire Martin, who had a hand in all four previous tries, hurled a long pass wide which was line-ball but approved by the sideline official before it bounced forward for winger Dallin Watene-Zelezniak to notch his seventh four-pointer of the year. 

It was 30-6 when the Warriors added a penalty after the sin bin overreaction before DWZ launched himself over the dead-ball line to bat back a grubber for CNK to grab his second try. 

The skill and effort shown by the Warriors in that play, in contrast to the lack of those qualities from the home side, summed up the match. 

Journeyman winger Braidon Burns helped himself to a late consolation try before Berry notched his first career double to complete the Cowboys’ misery. 

North Queensland are well and truly in the playoff mix with a 7-7 record but in reality they are a long way short of the standard or consistency to be a serious finals contender. 

Cowboys coach Todd Payten is under pressure to get results with this star-studded roster with only hooker Reece Robson and winger Murray Taulagi unable to back up from their Origin contingent’s midweek workload due to minor injuries.