Melbourne Storm 16–24 North Queensland Cowboys — Semi-Final, 2005 NRL Finals Series
17 Sep 2005 · Sydney Football Stadium, Moore Park, Sydney, NSW · Attendance: 16,810
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Semi-Final, 2005 NRL finals series: Melbourne Storm 16–24 North Queensland Cowboys, at Sydney Football Stadium, Moore Park, Sydney, NSW on 17 Sep 2005.
Sourcing caveat: North Queensland's 4th try (required by the score arithmetic) could only be sourced to an AI-generated aggregator naming Matt Bowen, which is not treated as reliable per this site's sourcing standards — recorded as "Try scorer unconfirmed" rather than accepting an unverified AI-sourced name. Ty Williams's 2 tries and David Faiumu's try are independently confirmed (the latter via his NZ Rugby League bio). No try-scoring minutes were found for this fixture.
Scorers
| Melbourne Storm | Tries: Bell; Bell; King Goals: Orford (1/2 conversions); Smith (1/1 conversion) |
| North Queensland Cowboys | Tries: Williams; Williams; Faiumu; Try scorer unconfirmed Goals: Hannay (2/3 conversions); Thurston (2/2 conversions) |
Team sheets
| Melbourne Storm | North Queensland Cowboys | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greg Inglis | Fullback | Matt Bowen | 1 |
| 2 | Matt Geyer | Wing | Ty Williams | 2 |
| 3 | Steve Bell | Centre | Josh Hannay | 3 |
| 4 | Matt King | Centre | Paul Bowman | 4 |
| 5 | Jake Webster | Wing | Matt Sing | 5 |
| 6 | Scott Hill | Five-Eighth | Justin Smith | 6 |
| 7 | Matt Orford (c) | Halfback | Johnathan Thurston | 7 |
| 8 | Ian Donnelly | Prop | Paul Rauhihi | 8 |
| 9 | Cameron Smith | Hooker | Aaron Payne | 9 |
| 10 | Brett White | Prop | Shane Tronc | 10 |
| 11 | David Kidwell | Second Row | Steve Southern | 11 |
| 12 | Glen Turner | Second Row | Luke O'Donnell | 12 |
| 13 | Dallas Johnson | Lock | Travis Norton (c) | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 15 | Cooper Cronk | Brett Firman | 7 | |
| 16 | Antonio Kaufusi | David Faiumu | 14 | |
| 17 | Ryan Hoffman | Jacob Lillyman | 15 | |
| 22 | Alex Chan | Mitchell Sargent | 17 | |
| Craig Bellamy | Coach | Graham Murray | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Paul Simpkins |
Match report
North Queensland raced out to a stunning 16-0 halftime lead over Melbourne on a ground far from home for both interstate travellers, effectively ending the match as a contest before the break. Melbourne, missing the injured Billy Slater and Robbie Kearns from the previous week's side, fought back in the second half through a Steve Bell double and a Matt King try, but couldn't close the gap.