The Cowboys hosted the Sharks at Queensland Country Bank Stadium on Saturday afternoon with Payten demanding a physical response after they were belted 42-12 by Manly in the first round.
The coach put his players on notice by dumping Queensland State of Origin forward Jeremiah Nanai to the Queensland Cup.
While the scoreline was an improvement, North Queensland still appeared disjointed both in attack and defence, desperately missing Jason Taumalolo, who is set to return next week from a foot injury.
The Cowboys didn't manage a single line-break and tallied 35 missed tackles as Cronulla banked their first win after a six-point loss to Penrith in Las Vegas.
"Every time we got in an arm-wrestle we come up with an error or a penalty and then they'd score a try, so that's not going to win you games," Payten said.
"We've played two contenders in the past two weeks and we're a fair way off and we're going to find out what we're about over the next little period."
Payten said winger Braiden Burns was unlikely to face Brisbane next Friday after re-injuring his hamstring.
The visitors skipped away to a 10-0 lead after 24 minutes with centre Kayal Iro and second-rower Briton Nikora both taking advantage of some flimsy goal-line defence.
While North Queensland hit back when young centre Jaxon Purdue pounced on a loose ball off a kick by Thomas Duffy, the Sharks again pushed the margin out to 10 points.
Cronulla moved the ball wide to expose the Cowboys' problematic left edge defence, with winger Sam Stonestreet strolling over.
Murray Taulagi did his best to kick-start the Cowboys but was denied by Sharks fullback Will Kennedy while Nikora's potential second try was rejected due to obstruction, with the halftime scoreline 16-6.
Taulagi had a mixed night, put on report in the second half for an alleged high tackle on Jesse Ramien.
The home side went down a man seven minutes into the second half when Purdue was sent to the sin bin for a professional foul but Cronulla were unable to take advantage.
But they broke the second half deadlock and made the task near impossible for North Queensland, scoring twice in four minutes through second-rower Teig Wilton and winger Ronaldo Mulitalo.
Speedster Stonestreet grabbed his second try in the 73rd minute with Cowboys fullback Scott Drinkwater showing his class to score off the kick-off.
But the Sharks had the final say with Iro again charging over to cap a miserable night for the home side.
Cronulla coach Craig Fitzgibbon revealed his team had hardly trained since Vegas due to illness which rocked their preparation.
"You can't say it before the game because it's an excuse, but we had five players with COVID, five got Influenza A, we couldn't prepare, we couldn't train and we didn't get them in until Monday," Fitzgibbon said.
"And then we're the only Vegas team that had to travel post-Vegas so I was a bit wary about the hangover of that ... but I thought we played strong."
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