North Queensland remain on top of the NRL ladder after coming from behind to register a controversial 26-18 win over Parramatta, a fourth straight win to start the season.

The Cowboys recovered from a 14-0 deficit just before the break to post a four-tries-to-two victory, but the Eels were left fuming after two controversial refereeing decisions cost them tries in either half.

The first saw referee Paul Simpkins call back what looked a flat pass from Tim Smith which would have put Brett Delaney over for the Eels second try in the opening 13 minutes following Eric Grothe's 80 metre special in the eighth minute.

Video referee Graeme West was the villain the second time, denying hooker Mark Riddell a trademark four-pointer when he burrowed over from dummy half, with West ruling that Riddell had run through the man playing the ball, Wade McKinnon.

"I have no idea," Brian Smith said in reference to the forward pass decision.

"It was what I would call not even a second cousin to a forward pass.

"(The Riddell decision was) not as bad as the forward pass, probably only a first cousin away from whatever it was they came up with. I would suggest Mark Riddell has scored approximately 20 of them."

But in reality it was two errors either side of the break which really cost the Eels.

Just when it looked like they would go to the sheds with a handy 14-0 lead, Nathan Hindmarsh fumbled a ball only metres from his own line, and the Cowboys took full advantage with back-up prop Matthew Scott crossing out wide to cut the margin to eight at the half.

It was down to two only two minutes after the resumption when fullback McKinnon inexplicably played the ball without a dummy half in front of his own sticks.

Rod Jensen pounced on the loose ball for the Cowboys, with dummy half David Faiumu scooting over virtually untouched from the play the ball.

"We didn't shoot ourselves in the foot, we shot our whole leg off," Smith said.

"A couple of the things we did were really poor... if we hadn't shot ourselves in the foot we would have been good enough even to overcome all of those."

Cowboys coach Graham Murray said his side had done well to overcome a terrible start, in which Tim Smith had laid on tries for Grothe and McKinnon to build a 14-point lead.

"At 14-6 we were pretty lucky," Murray said.

"We didn't look that flash in the early part of that first half. Halftime probably came at a good time for us, and we tidied a couple of things up.

"I don't think we're right at the top of our game at the moment... we put ourselves in a pretty ordinary position there tonight but got back out of it, so it's a good sign."

The Cowboys hit the lead in the 49th minute when Matt Sing scored out wide.

The Eels thought they were back in front soon after when Riddell was controversially denied, with the home side's frustration evident when backrower Chad Robinson collected Brett Firman with a late shot that was put on report and sparked a brawl which saw Robinson and Cowboys centre Justin Smith both sin binned.

Sing sewed up the two competition points in the dying stages with his second of the night, which took him to equal fifth on the all-time list of tryscorers with 152.

McKinnon also grabbed a double late for Parramatta.

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