Canterbury-Bankstown 22–30 North Queensland Cowboys — Qualifying Final, 2004 NRL Finals Series
11 Sep 2004 · Telstra Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park, NSW · Attendance: 18,371
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Qualifying Final, 2004 NRL finals series: Canterbury-Bankstown 22–30 North Queensland Cowboys, at Telstra Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park, NSW on 11 Sep 2004.
Sourcing caveat: Canterbury-Bankstown's 4th try (required by the score arithmetic — Ben Harris's 3 tries plus El Masri's 3/4 goals only account for 18 of the Bulldogs' 22 points) could not be attributed to a named scorer despite checking Rugby League Project's stats pages, Wikipedia, LeagueUnlimited and League Freak — recorded as "Try scorer unconfirmed" rather than guessed. No try-scoring minutes were found for this fixture.
Scorers
| Canterbury-Bankstown | Tries: Harris; Harris; Harris; Try scorer unconfirmed Goals: El Masri (3/4 conversions) |
| North Queensland Cowboys | Tries: Sing; Sing; Sing; Bowen; O'Donnell Goals: Hannay (5/7 conversions) |
Team sheets
| Canterbury-Bankstown | North Queensland Cowboys | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luke Patten | Fullback | Matt Bowen | 1 |
| 2 | Hazem El Masri | Wing | Ty Williams | 2 |
| 3 | Ben Harris | Centre | Josh Hannay | 3 |
| 4 | Willie Tonga | Centre | Paul Bowman | 4 |
| 5 | Matt Utai | Wing | Matt Sing | 5 |
| 6 | Braith Anasta | Five-Eighth | David Myles | 6 |
| 7 | Brent Sherwin | Halfback | Nathan Fien | 7 |
| 8 | Mark O'Meley | Prop | Paul Rauhihi | 8 |
| 9 | Adam Perry | Hooker | Aaron Payne | 9 |
| 10 | Steve Price (c) | Prop | Shane Tronc | 10 |
| 11 | Willie Mason | Second Row | Luke O'Donnell | 11 |
| 12 | Andrew Ryan | Second Row | Steve Southern | 12 |
| 13 | Tony Grimaldi | Lock | Travis Norton (c) | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 14 | Reni Maitua | Rod Jensen | 14 | |
| 15 | Corey Hughes | Leigh McWilliams | 16 | |
| 16 | Roy Asotasi | Mitchell Sargent | 17 | |
| 17 | Sonny Bill Williams | Glenn Morrison | 19 | |
| Steve Folkes | Coach | Graham Murray | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Tim Mander |
Match report
North Queensland pulled off a landmark result, ending the higher-seeded Bulldogs' campaign in just the Cowboys' second-ever finals appearance. The Cowboys raced to an 18-6 halftime lead built on hat-trick tries from Matt Sing, and held on despite a Ben Harris hat-trick fightback from the home side. Steve Price was sin-binned for ten minutes during the match. The win propelled the Cowboys to a first-ever semi-final against Brisbane the following week.