The Cowboys were powerless to stop the marauding Bears, who led 30-0 after 25 minutes.

Bears captain-coach Scott Blanch led the way, scoring the first try after seven minutes with a typical jinking short run in which he beat three defenders and carried two more over the tryline with him.

Jake McManus scored seven minutes later for Norths.

Shane Wadwell then delivered a great short pass to lock Nick Dobson, who crossed in the 17th minute.

Bears centre Tristram Morris added two more tries in the space of eight minutes.

The home side flexed their premiership muscle on a night the club also celebrated their 2008 premiership win.

“It was a real good first half,”  Blanch said.

“When we get going we are going good. Having just 12 men didn’t make it easy, either.”

The Bears lost back-rower Brad Marshall five minutes before half time to what was initially a sin-binning for abusive and obscene language towards referee Luke Sheather, following a tackle by Cowboys prop Marshall Barker.

Barker was also sin-binned. But when Marshall made further unsavoury comments, the referee had no option but to send him off.

To Dungowan’s credit they had already started a comeback at that point, after fullback Ethan Collins scored a good try from a delayed Matt Wilson pass to make it 30-6.

A few minutes after the Marshall’s sending off, Liam Hatch scored a morale-boosting, brilliant try to make it 30-12 at halftime.

While the Cowboys had a good start to the second half, the Bear machine was back in full gear when Blanch scored his second try, and then Jack Patterson scored the first of his double five minutes later.