The Brisbane Broncos have turned on a 25-minute masterclass downing a courageous Canterbury side 34-14 at Suncorp Stadium.
Canterbury came into this match in the worst possible way with a COVID cluster at their facility seeing four players ruled out on top of their injury toll seeing Jacob Kiraz and Billy Tsikrikas making their first-grade debuts.
After an opening 20 minutes which saw both sides throwing the ball around, Canterbury pounced as possession slowly favoured the Dogs and they were rewarded when Matt Burton took it to the line and found Aaron Schoupp who got a lovely offload away to Josh Addo-Carr and the Bulldogs opened the scoring. Kyle Flanagan's sideline conversion saw the Dogs lead 6-0. Five minutes later, the Bulldogs trotted in for another try as Matt Burton linked up well with Josh Addo-Carr again and the Dogs were starting to produce what we were expecting.
However, the Bulldogs conceded right on half-time as a well-executed play saw Corey Oates comes from the left wing to the middle of the field and the winger crashed over to score for the Broncos on the stroke of half-time and cut the Bulldogs' margin down to 4. Straight after half-time, the Dogs struck back again when Tevita Pangai Jr got a lovely ball away to Matt Dufty who outpaced the defence to score for the blue and whites and extend the margin to 8 points.
This is when Brisbane's high octane attack came into gear, off the back of a heavy set restart count in their favour, Cory Paix ducked over from acting half and Brisbane cut into the Bulldogs' margin to trail by just two points. Five minutes later, a chip and chase from Adam Reynolds gave the Fox a nightmare of a bounce as Jordan Riki picked it up and found his skipper to cross for the try that gave his side the lead by 18-14.
Another five minutes passed and Brisbane and Adam Reynolds drew in the Bulldogs' defence and Selwyn Cobbo crossed for the Broncos. Cobbo crossed again inside the final ten minutes taking the ball of the Fox to cross for a spectacular try in the corner. Another piece of Cobbo brilliance sparked their last try, as the Broncos shifted again to the left and Cobbo kicked the ball back in play which found Rhys Kennedy who crossed for the Broncos to seal the 20 point victory as the Bulldogs ran out of gas in the final washup.
Canterbury was far from disgraced in a week where everything was against them, they showed up and played for around 55 minutes, an effort which can be excused considering the COVID forced changes. But their task doesn't get easier when they take on competition powerhouses, the Sydney Roosters next weekend. Brisbane meanwhile has a tough encounter against the competition's most improved side the Cronulla Sharks.