NRL: Cowboys end Broncos' season

The Cowboys' skipper Johnathan Thurston lays down the law to his players during the NRL elimination final between North Queensland and the Brisbane Broncos in Townsville. Photo / Getty Images

For once there were no complaints from North Queensland despite some anxious moments in their 32-20 NRL elimination final win over Brisbane in Townsville on Saturday night.

The Cowboys watched a 24-0 halftime lead whittle away before backrower Tariq Sims appeared to land in deep trouble for a late hit on Broncos veteran Justin Hodges.

However, North Queensland coach Paul Green was still all smiles on fulltime, having booked a semi-final clash with his former club Sydney Roosters after the defending champions suffered a shock loss to Penrith earlier in the night.

"I thought it was a good game," Green said of their Jekyll and Hyde performance.

"We now have an opportunity to play next week which a lot of teams haven't - we are still alive in this competition."

Understandably paranoid after refereeing howlers ended their finals campaign the past two years, the Cowboys left nothing to chance with their first half onslaught before finally putting away their Queensland rivals in front of a delirious 25,120-strong home crowd.

The only controversy was Sims' late second-half hit that left the Brisbane co-captain prone for several minutes as he received treatment.

Hodges required stitches to a head gash but did not want to wade into the hit which was placed on report.

"I just remember passing the ball and ending up on the ground (but) it's done now - I don't care," he said.

Asked if he was surprised Sims remained on the field after the incident Broncos coach Anthony Griffin said: "No. Just put him on report and get on with it.

"I think we have more to talk about than that."

Namely, Griffin making way for Wayne Bennett at the Broncos next year.

Brisbane relied on other results to go their way before squeezing into the top eight and indeed looked like making up the numbers as the Cowboys hit the ground running on Saturday night.

But the Broncos made the vocal crowd hold their breath when they fought back to 24-14 in the second half before fullback Michael Morgan's 65th minute try sealed the result.

"Whatever could have gone wrong did," Griffin said of their first half.

"But we rose again."

In 2004, North Queensland came of age when they downed Brisbane for the first time in a semifinal in Townsville.

Fast forward 10 years and the Cowboys looked to have made another bold statement against their old foes, defying a horror finals history to stake a serious claim as NRL title threats.

Still, they would have been forgiven for feeling paranoid.

First there was the undetected "Hand of Foran" knock-on that sparked Manly's 22-12 semi-final win over North Queensland in 2012.

A year later and the Cowboys were screaming blue murder again, even conjuring Sydney-centric conspiracy theories, when a seventh-tackle try sparked Cronulla's 20-18 finals win.

However, they had tongues wagging for all the right reasons on Saturday night when they ended Griffin's Broncos tenure with their eighth win in nine games.

Meanwhile, Broncos forward Ben Hannant was placed on report for high contact on Morgan in the 70th minute.

- AAP