North Queensland’s 11-game winning streak ended in spectacular fashion on Saturday as the NRL’s comeback kings surrendered an 18-point lead to lose 24-18 to Cronulla in Townsville.

The Cowboys went into the match without co-captain Johnathan Thurston, who was rested by coach Paul Green due to his State of Origin exertions, but they were undiminished and raced out to an 18-0 halftime lead.

Still, the Sharks refused to hoist the white flag and piled on 24 unanswered points for a stunning second-half turnaround.

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The Sharks, missing captain Paul Gallen to a rib injury, were dreadful in the first half, conceding eight errors and four penalties while lacking any enthusiasm or intensity.

Cowboys hooker Jake Granville capitalised in the 13th minute, slicing through some threadbare defence to run 55 metres and touch down.

Michael Morgan split the right edge to put Justin O’Neill over after 18 minutes and a blowout looked on the cards when Antonio Winterstein crossed in the 27th minute.

But whatever coach Shane Flanagan said in the sheds stung the Sharks into action.

They were gifted three consecutive penalties to open the second term, which allowed Luke Lewis the opportunity to cross, and Michael Gordon’s conversion pegged the difference back to 12.

Granville was then put on report for a seemingly innocuous tackle on Sharks winger Sosaia Feki, with the ensuing penalty again giving Cronulla valuable field position.

Sam Tagatese made the most of it, crossing next to the sticks in the 48th minute to present Gordon with a straightforward conversion.

Valentine Holmes jinked and sliced his way 70 metres upfield to give the Sharks a platform from which Andrew Fifita slammed the ball down in the 62nd minute before Gordon converted to lock up the scores.

Then Ricky Leutele scored what turned out to be the match-winner in the 66th minute.

Three players were placed on report, with Sharks duo Matt Prior and Michael Ennis joining Granville.

Meanwhile, a hat-trick from Semi Radradra has inspired Parramatta to a 16-12 win over St George Illawarra at Pirtek Stadium.

Radradra scored tries in the 4th, 43rd and 61st minutes as the Eels put a week of drama surrounding Kieran Foran’s contract imbroglio behind them to drag themselves off the bottom rung on the NRL ladder.

It was the fourth straight game in which Radradra has scored two or more tries and the Fijian has now scored 14 tries in nine games so far this season.

He has collected 21 tries in 16 games at the Eels home ground and tallied 40 in 41 NRL games since debuting for Parramatta late in 2013.

Radradra’s third try of the night looked to have sealed back-to-back wins for the Eels.

But his compatriot Eto Nabuli scored for the Dragons with 12 minutes to go to set up a grandstand finish before 15,046 fans.

But Parramatta held firm thanks to some stoic goal line defence and some wasteful playmaking from Benji Marshall to hand the Dragons three straight defeats.

– with AAP