The fast-finishing Cowboys scored three tries in eight minutes for a shock 28-24 win in their Saturday night home clash, with the Storm giving up a commanding lead for the second straight match.
Craig Bellamy's men looked comfortable, leading 24-14 when winger Will Warbrick crossed for his fourth try of the night in the 64th minute.
But the Cowboys fired back at their highly-rated rivals with front-rowers Sam McIntyre and Heilum Luki, and winger Braidon Burns, who scored his second for the night, turning the game on its head.
The trio scored in the 68th, 71st and 76th minute to leave the Storm shell-shocked, suffering their first back-to-back losses since the start of the 2025 season.
With Manly's Anthony Seibold the first coaching casualty of the year with his axing this round, Payten kept faith his team would find their way after two early losses.
"Everyone's held their nerve in the building - the playing group - it was disappointing to lose in Vegas, the second week in Sydney that's not us, but I've seen enough and watched enough to know what a good footy team looks like and we didn't deviate and we won't," he said.
"We'll keep pushing forward."
He said his team could take plenty of confidence out of regaining the lead and then keeping the desperate Storm out.
"Yeah, 10 points down with 10 minutes to go, we grabbed momentum and held it - I've got to give it to our game drivers, how calm and connected they were in those moments in particular."
Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy was left frustrated, with the loss following the same pattern as last round when they led 14-0 only to lose 18-14 to Brisbane.
"The last two games we've lost after having good leads ... so that's the frustrating thing, and it's why?"We all might have a different opinion on, on the whys, but you gotta give the opposition credit too - in both second halves last week and this week they played really well, but there is just the pattern and we don't want to keep going, so we need to try and work it out.
Warbrick looked like he would be the hero of the night, standing up in a decimated Melbourne backline.
With Nick Meaney and Xavier Coates on the sidelines, the Storm lost hard-running centre Jack Howarth to a hip injury for the second half.
But Warbrick combined with halfback Jahrome Hughes for two valuable first-half tries and then scored another two in the second stanza.
Skipper Harry Grant can take credit for Warbrick's last when he spotted his winger unmarked and lobbed the pass from dummy-half over four defenders' heads for his winger to dive across in the corner.
That 64th-minute try put Melbourne up by 10 points and looked to have put the brakes on the Cowboys' fightback.
But it appeared to be more of a brief pause with the home side swinging momentum back with fullback Scott Drinkwater and halfback Tom Dearden piloting the attack.
Five-eighth Jake Clifford got North Queensland got off to a flying start when he leapt AFL-style to take a Drinkwater bomb to score in the fourth minute.
The high octane match went end to end with Melbourne taking a 16-10 lead into halftime courtesy of Warbrick and the hot feet of fullback Sua Fa'alogo.
They pushed that out to 24-14 but the margin wasn't enough to hold out a fearless Cowboys outfit.
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