North Queensland consolidated their top eight credentials with a 46-12 NRL belting of South Sydney at Dairy Farmers Stadium.

The Cowboys' Origin stars backed up superbly with Johnathan Thurston having a hand in two tries and booting five goals while Luke O'Donnell put in another commanding performance in the nine-tries-to-two victory.

The Cowboys' fourth straight win sees them draw level with Penrith, Newcastle and the Gold Coast on 16 NRL competition points, moving them into equal fifth spot on the ladder.

The Cowboys controlled the game from the kick off, running in four first-half tries backed up by some rock solid defence.

The first half ambush from the home side saw John Williams (5th minute), Ash Graham (12th), Aaron Payne (19th) and Scott Bolton (33rd) all cross for a 22-6 halftime lead.

It was more of the same for the Cowboys after the break with Graham and Williams bagging doubles while Matt Bowen (55th), Ty Williams (60th) and Matt Scott (76th) crossed the chalk.

Beau Champion (25th) and Craig Wing (79th) were the only Souths player to breach the Cowboys' line.

North Queensland coach Neil Henry claimed his side's defensive steel was the most pleasing aspect of their fourth straight win.

"Our defensive effort, apart from right at the death, I think two home games in a row now we have really defended well for large parts of the game," he said.

"We have talked about that just being a bit of a focus and we have been able to achieve that.

"The forwards are really starting to share the workload and it makes it easy for our halves."

The Queensland assistant coach also praised the toughness of his representative stars Thurston and O'Donnell.

"JT and Luke O'Donnell's ability to back up after the midweek games it is all pretty positive."

Souths coach Jason Taylor was left to rue a lack of possession as his side slid to an embarrassing 34-point loss.

"We only made a few errors in the first half but the percentage of possession was still 65 per cent to 35 roughly, very difficult," he said.

"It was just a night where we just couldn't get a thing to go our way.

"We just couldn't get any momentum."

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