Eels deliver a hammer blow to Brisbane Broncos’ title hopes

PARRAMATTA took a hammer blow to Brisbane’s premiership dreams after the electric Eels shocked the Broncos in a 52-34 boilover at Suncorp Stadium.

Darius Boyd of the Broncos questions the referee's decision.

PARRAMATTA took a hammer blow to Brisbane’s premiership dreams after the electric Eels shocked the Broncos in a 52-34 boilover at Suncorp Stadium on Thursday night.

If the Broncos needed a wake-up call before the finals this was it and they could be waiting longer to snap the club’s 11-year premiership drought if they don’t respond and sew up a top four spot in the final round.

This was no blip on the radar for the Broncos. It was a carbon copy of the punishment Parramatta dished out just four weeks ago and Brisbane still couldn’t stop it.

The Eels were fast and furious, bullying the Broncos with intensity and physicality to raise serious questions about Brisbane’s title credentials.

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Darius Boyd questions the a refereeing decision.

Conceding 50 points at this time of the year must be a concern for Wayne Bennett given no team has ever done that in a season and won the premiership.

“We just started the way you don’t want to start and it snowballed from there,” Bennett said.

“I don’t feel they dropped their heads. At times they were doing some pretty good things then just self-destructed more than anything else.

“There was a fair bit of effort at times. It was just a bad night.

“It’s a concern if we carry our baggage with us. We’ve done a lot of good things this season. That was our worst performance of the season.

“The season doesn’t depend on one game. We’ve got to recognise we had a bad night.

“We can’t avoid it or make excuses for it. We’ve got to move forward again.”

The writing was on the wall for the Broncos from the opening whistle, Eels winger Kirisome Auva’a scoring the fastest try in NRL history when he pounced on a loose Adam Blair offload after just 12 seconds.

From there the floodgates opened. Tearaway Eels winger Semi Radradra scored a hat-trick inside 20 minutes and finished the game with four tries.

If the Roosters beat Cronulla tomorrow the Broncos will fall from second spot on the ladder and possibly lose their home ground advantage for the first week of the finals.

The Broncos went into the clash having won five of their past six games but the only loss was telling, coming against the Eels in round 21.

On that night at ANZ Stadium Parramatta fought back from a 12-0 deficit to win 28-14, bashing the Broncos with intent and energy, the same strategy they used on Thursday night in front of 29,058 in Brisbane’s last home game of the regular season.

Corey Norman celebrates with his team after a try.

The Broncos were mistake riddled and lacked cohesion. Even reliable captain Darius Boyd threw poor passes and made mistakes he rarely does.

The Broncos were shocked when Auva’a scored so quickly and Radradra bamboozled them with his speed and strength to give the Eels a 24-0 lead inside 20 minutes.

David Mead and Josh McGuire scored to get Brisbane back into the contest but a try to Michael Jennings late in the first half gave Parramatta an insurmountable 30-10 lead at the break.

When Radradra bagged his fourth the game was over and James Roberts’ horrible pass to Corey Oates which allowed Jennings to score his second summed up Brisbane’s night of horrors.

Even David Gower got in on the action to bring up the half-century and leave the Broncos with a week of soul-searching before next Thursday’s derby against the Cowboys in Townsville.

PARRAMATTA 52 (S Radradra 4 M Jennings 2 K Auva’a D Gower B Takairangi tries M Moses 8 goals) bt BRISBANE 34 (H Ese’ese A Glenn J McGuire D Mead T Moga C Oates tries A Milford 5 goals) at Suncorp Stadium. Referee: Ashley Klein, Adam Gee. Crowd: 29,058.

Originally published as Eels deliver a hammer blow to Brisbane Broncos’ title hopes