Brisbane’s top-four hopes have copped a dent with an upset 32-18 loss to the Wests Tigers at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.
The Broncos have surrendered fourth spot to the Storm, who beat the Warriors 24 hours earlier, when they put in a flat performance against a team that was running last.
And the good news for the Tigers is they have lifted themselves away from last spot with their boilover victory, assigning Gold Coast to wooden spoon favouritism after they went down to Canberra earlier in the day.
Maybe it was karma for Wests after they were denied a legitimate win the previous week when a bunker blunder ruined their hopes up securing a precious two competition points against the Cowboys in Townsville.
Tigers winger Brent Naden opened the scoring in the 12th minute to give the visitors a 6-0 lead.
Tesi Niu leveled the scores midway through the first half when he chimed into the back line down the right edge.
Five-eighth Ezra Mam made it 12-6 when he twisted his way over the line and Naden should have hit back seven minutes from halftime but ran out and fumbled a pass with the left corner just a few metres away.
Wests ended up equalising just before the break when Kelma Tuilagi broke free and turned the ball inside for a juggling Jock Madden to touch down after being called into the side for Luke Brooks, who is out for the rest of the year with a calf complaint.
They went 18-12 up six minutes after the restart when Adam Doueihi batted back a bomb and centre Starford To’a plunged over out wide.
The Tigers made it 24-12 when bench prop Zane Musgrove crashed over for just the third try of his career.
Daine Laurie. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Brisbane fought their way back into the contest midway through the second period when Jordan Riki muscled his way over the stripe to halve the deficit.
Just when it looked like the Broncos were going to level it up heading down the stretch, the Tigers extended their lead to eight when Patrick Carrigan was penalised for a hip drop tackle on Jackson Hastings.
The lock limped off and was in crutches on the sidelines before the full-time siren sounded.
Doueihi slipped through some threadbare defence to seal just their fourth triumph from 19 starts this season and the first since interim coach Brett Kimmorley took over from Michael Maguire last month.
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