Manly have moved to within a game of their third grand final appearance in five years after unleashing a second-half points blitz to belt North Queensland 42-8 in the third Qualifying Final at the SFS.
North Queensland led 8-0 at half-time but failed to score another point as Manly piled on seven tries to complete a crushing victory that will have premiership rivals looking over their shoulder.
The Sea Eagles beat the clock in racking up 42 points in just 40 minutes before a small but vocal crowd.
The loss ends the Cowboys' season while ensuring St George Illawarra, beaten by Wests Tigers in the first qualifying, live to fight another day in the second week of the finals.
The Sea Eagles march into the preliminary final but not before overpowering a determined Cowboys outfit.
The visitors came into the game rank outsiders but looked anything but underdogs as they opened at a ferocious pace.
They took an early lead through a Johnathan Thurston penalty goal before continuing to rattle the Manly side with in-your-face defence.
The first try was 27 minutes in the making and, fittingly, Thurston was the architect.
He ignored the fact it was just the second tackle to dribble a grubber into the in-goal where Willie Tonga was quickest to the ball.
Thurston converted to take his team out to a deserved 8-0 lead.
Fired up by coach Des Hasler's half-time talk, Manly came out with a lot more purpose, direction and desperation.
The reward came after just eight minutes following a scrum win inside the North Queensland quarter.
The ball swept to the right on the back of double man plays before it found its way to winger Will Hopoate.
He cut back inside to find three cover defenders waiting to greet him.
But Hopoate simply put the foot down and powered over the top of them to slam the ball down.
Jamie Lyon potted the angled conversion to reduce the gap to 8-6.
North Queensland were suddenly under the pump and suffered a setback when forward Cory Paterson was taken from the field on a medicab with his neck in a brace.
Paterson was hit high in a tackle that led to Shane Rodney being put on report, but it was the awkward way in which he fell that caused the damage.
The lengthy break in play did nothing to halt the Sea Eagles' momentum.
They hit the front for the first time at the 57th minute following a wonderful try featuring half a dozen players.
Lyon kept the ball alive as the moment swept from the right back to the left before Daly Cherry-Evans found Kieran Foran who took on the defence before unloading a beautiful pass to a flying Brett Stewart. The fullback did the rest to rack up career try No.110.
The try broke the Cowboys' resolve and Daly-Evans drove another nail in the coffin just five minutes later.
His dead accurate bomb struck the left upright and fell into the path of bystander Anthony Watmough.
The backrower couldn't believe his luck, the ball bouncing straight into his arms for the easiest of tries.
At 18-8 there was no way back for North Queensland.
Further tries to Hopoate, Stewart, Matt Ballin and Jamie Buhrer completed the second-half rout.
Manly 42
Tries: Stewart 2, Hopoate 2, Watmough, Buhrer, Ballin
Goals: Lyon 7
North Queensland 8
Tries: Tonga
Goals: Thurston 2
Crowd: 13,972