The pain of being bounced out of previous NRL finals under controversial circumstances will not be a motivating factor for North Queensland during the 2014 playoffs.

The Cowboys will enter this year’s finals no lower than fifth after its resounding 30-16 win over Manly in Townsville on Saturday night.

If New Zealand upset Penrith tonight, the Cowboys will finish fourth.

It will be the Cowboys’ fourth consecutive finals campaign, the last two wrecked by controversial refereeing decisions.

In 2012, it was the ‘hand of God’ try in which Manly’s Kieran Foran clearly knocked the ball on in the lead-up to a Jorge Taufua try.

Video referees Steve Clark and Paul Simpkins flashed up the green light and the Cowboys’ season was over.

Then in 2013 it was the infamous seven tackle try by Cronulla’s Beau Ryan that cost the Cowboys the game as they went on to lose 20-18.

Cowboys co-captain Matt Scott insists there will be no baggage from those losses when the club enters this year’s finals.

“Hopefully we’ve learned from those losses,” he said.

“We know we could have been better in the games the last couple of years.

“Decisions might have gone against us but ultimately it’s in our hands.”

He was backed up by forward Glenn Hall, who said those controversial exits were “in the past”.

“I don’t think last year will come into it at all,” he said.

“The way we’ve approached this year, especially the last few weeks, it’s just been a week at a time.

“That’s how we’ll approach the semi-finals.

“It was a good win tonight, but they had a lot of players out too. We’ll do our best next week.”

The Cowboys are one of the form teams of the NRL and a genuine dark horse to take out the premiership after winning its last seven out of eight games, including wins over top eight sides South Sydney, Manly and Canterbury.

Scott said they would need to keep that momentum rolling into the finals.

“We’ve got to use it,” he said.

“We’ve got to keep improving, that’s the main thing.

“There’s a lot of teams with momentum, a lot of teams in form in the top eight.

“It’s just about getting better from here on.”