KEY POINTS:
The Warriors are showing signs of a growing maturity, demonstrated by the clever way they closed out their game against previously unbeaten North Queensland yesterday.
It was the first time this season the Warriors have held a slender lead going into the last quarter, and they kept their heads to deny the visitors victory.
That came after a first half in which the Queenslanders had all the territory and much of the possession, forcing the Warriors to make more tackles, as they had to against Manly.
But this time they applied pressure, earned turnovers, didn't fall apart when things went against them and ultimately forced the Cowboys into making the sort of self-destructive errors the Warriors of seasons past used to make.
In the later stages the Cowboys were caught on the sixth tackle, leading to a try for Warriors' halfback Grant Rovelli.
Then they were forced to knock the ball dead from their in-goal and after the Warriors again earned a goal-line drop-out, Nathan Fien stepped past tiring defenders to score near the posts.
The Cowboys kickoff did not go 10 metres, and from the resulting penalty and possession, wing Manu Vatuvei ran in the Warriors' fifth touchdown.
"We pretty much dominated the game, but we couldn't finish things - there are a few things for us to work on," said Warriors coach Ivan Cleary.
"There were a lot of good performances by individuals and the team was all working as one."
Captain Steve Price said the enthusiasm showed when they caught Cowboys prop Ray Cashmere on the last tackle to initiate the run that brought Rovelli's try.
Price got over the line himself just on halftime to bring the score back to 10-all after the Bowen brothers, Matt and Brenton, had secured a lead for the visitors. It was Price's third in three home games, all won by the Warriors.
The result gives them a top-four spot but to push on and become a grand final contender they must learn to win in Australia.
They have the bye this week, then meet the vastly improved Souths in Sydney on April 29.
Cowboys coach Graham Murray felt his team were in it until the 65th minute - Rovelli's try.
"The last 15 minutes wasn't any good for us," he said.
"We did some silly things. We made the errors and invited them up the park."
Price led the distance gained for both sides with a phenomenal 270m and also made 22 tackles. Fien topped the defensive workload with 36 tackles.
Twenty-seven-year-old hooker Corey Lawrie of the Canterbury Bulls, replacing the injured George Gatis, performed well in his NRL debut.
