Ryan Papenhuyzen was an early casualty as North Queensland's scrappy defeat of a patchwork Melbourne went closer to locking in a Townsville start to their NRL finals campaign.
The Cowboys prevailed 38-30 in an 11-try affair at home on Thursday, victory in the penultimate regular-season round pushing them three points clear of seventh-placed Manly ahead of the Sea Eagles' clash with Canterbury on Friday.
