Broncos fall to 45-year low despite defeating Bulldogs
George Clarke |
Brisbane have brought the curtain down on their miserable NRL premiership defence with a 34-20 victory over Canterbury.
Eleven months on from their drought-breaking title, the Broncos returned to Accor Stadium on Thursday and sent Payne Haas out as a winner in his final Brisbane game before he joins South Sydney.
Haas, one of the heroes of last year’s premiership, scored the opening try and was sent to the sin bin in an eventful first half that ended 10-10.
But after halftime Brisbane, who have been out of finals contention for weeks, pulled away and piled on 24 second-half points.
The victory was just Brisbane’s eighth for the season, in what represents the worst return of any defending premiers since Canterbury in 1981.
The Broncos are just the third side in the NRL era to miss the finals in the year after a premiership.
“We’ve been through plenty throughout the year, but to watch the group have a smile on their faces after is nice to see,” said Broncos coach Michael Maguire.
“We’ve pushed hard and one thing I know is the group moving into the next phase of where we go, they understand the highs of 12 months and then this period.”
Winger Josiah Karapani was a standout for the Broncos on Thursday, scoring two tries, chalking up 142m and 13 tackle busts as Canterbury’s season ended with a whimper.
A large contingent of Bulldogs fans in the official crowd of 13,802 headed for the exit on the hour mark, and it would be hard to blame them after a year when it felt Canterbury took a step backwards by missing out on the top eight.
As has been the case for much of this season, the Bulldogs’ attack was pedestrian and laboured, and even with 38 play-the-balls in Brisbane’s 20m zone they struggled to threaten in possession.
“We wanted to finish the year really strong and 13,000 loyal fans turned up expecting us to put in our best performance of the year,” said Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo.
“We were a long way off that. That second half probably summed up our year.”
Halfback Lachlan Galvin was one of the Bulldogs’ try-scorers – hitting back after Haas and Karapani gave Brisbane an early lead – but his suitability to wear the No. 7 alongside Stephen Crichton at five-eighth is sure to be a dominant storyline over the off-season.
Crichton had a hand in Canterbury’s second through left winger Enari Tuala to level the scores going into halftime, but Brisbane kicked on from there.
Billy Walters, Ben Hunt, Jordan Riki and Karapani all touched down in the 20 minutes after halftime to give Brisbane their third win since a round-eight defeat of the Bulldogs in April.
Viliame Kikau and Galvin scored two late tries to reduce the deficit, but the fulltime scoreline flattered Canterbury, who finished the year with an 11-13 record.
AAP