The North Queensland Cowboys faced a crushing defeat in Round 7, falling 38-6 to Kieran Foran's Manly team, much to the shock of the home crowd.
Having come off four consecutive victories, expectations were high, but instead, the team presented what coach Todd Payten characterized as a "pretty flat performance."
North Queensland struggled to recover from a dismal first half, despite having comparable possession and territory statistics.
In the opening forty minutes, their completion rate was a mere 42 per cent (9 from 20 sets), resulting in 11 errors by halftime, and ultimately tallying 16 errors for the match.
The Cowboys' defense was equally concerning, as they missed 39 tackles and allowed Manly to score four tries in the first half, followed by two more in the second.
Payten was candid in his assessment after the match.
"I thought they were harder at the contest with more energy," Payten remarked after the painful 38-6 defeat.
"Pretty flat performance, I thought early on for me and then compounded that with 42 per cent completion in the first half. We made 16 errors through the whole game... we got what we deserved. Made 80 more tackles, so the score could have been bigger to be fair."
While the Cowboys did display moments of resilience following halftime, they could only score one try throughout the match and failed to put points on the board in the second half.