North Queensland found themselves buried under a Cronulla aerial assault off the boots of halves Braydon Trindall and Nicho Hynes in their NRL elimination final.
Even the crowd at Allianz Stadium started to goad Cowboys fullback Scott Drinkwater with loud cheers late in the game every time he steadied himself under a high ball.
From the moment Drinkwater dropped the first Trindall bomb in the second minute of play on Saturday, it was going to be a tough night for the visitors.
He dropped a second before halftime after Cowboys five-eighth Jake Clifford kicked out on the full.
In contrast, Trindall and Hynes obviously watched what Canberra Raiders rookie Coby Black did to the Cowboys a week ago and sent down a bombing raid in the opening 40 minutes - 13 kicks for 397 metres.
By full-time that figure had swelled out to 688 metres.
The Sharks' superior kicking game kept the Cowboys not only under the pump but also pinned in their own territory. By the 20th minute the Sharks were enjoying 70 per cent possession.
Things evened up in the second half when the Cowboys scored two of their three tries of the match - to winger Zac Laybutt and centre Jaxon Purdue.
But the constant array of kicks for field possession or to set up attacking moves became the bane of the Cowboys’ existence in their first NRL finals campaign since 2024.
If it wasn’t the Sharks' halves wreaking havoc, it was their wingers Sione Katoa and Ronaldo Mulitalo.
Katoa scored a double against the club he is due to join in 2027, while he and Mulitalo ran for more than 120 metres each and had eight tackle busts between them.
Mulitalo also nearly laid on two tries for his centre KL Iro, but the first time the Cook Islands captain put a foot into touch, and the second Mulitalo was offside when he made the pass.
The Cowboys did put up a brave fight, but the extra defence put them under enormous pressure - they missed 37 tackles.
Although the Cowboys live 2000km away from Sydney, they can’t really blame travel fatigue as a factor in the loss.
They had a bye in round 25, then played the remaining two rounds of the regular season at home in Townsville.
However, since the Cowboys won the 2015 premiership they have at least made the second week of finals in the six times they found themselves in the top eight.
Their best finish in that time was reaching the 2017 grand final, losing to Melbourne.
