The Brisbane Broncos season is officially on life support after they failed on another golden chance to reignite their finals push against the North Queensland Cowboys.

Michael Maguire’s side were left to rue a host of missed opportunities in the loss as their Queensland rivals delivered a major blow to Brisbane’s hopes of a potential late-season surge towards finals football.

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Speaking after the loss, the former New Zealand Kiwis and NSW Blues coach admitted that he was “shattered” and frustrated as the players let another opportunity slip away.

“I’m pretty shattered for the players and staff because we’re putting a hell of a lot of work in at the moment,” Michael Maguire said.

“Unfortunately, tonight we left a lot out there with (a) missed opportunity.

“In the first half we put ourselves across the line two or three times and we weren’t able to capitalise and unfortunately those things come back and catch you later in the game.”

The words from Maguire come as the Broncos are all but certain to miss out on making the finals – just 12 months after being crowned the NRL premiers.

However, he highlighted the importance of making the most of their remaining matches with key players departing at the end of the year.

This includes captain Adam Reynolds who will retire at the end of the season, while Gehamat Shibasaki (Perth Bears) and Payne Haas (South Sydney Rabbitohs) will move to new teams.

“We just spoke about as a group where we’re at and what we need to keep focused on and what it is each week (that) we need to keep turning up with a positive mindset around the fact that…what happens will happen,” the Broncos coach added.

“But we’ve also got some pretty incredible people within our playing group that have got (only a few) games left.

“One is Reyno, Payne, Gem, so as a group I’m really proud of them and there’s a lot of belief around who we are as a group but it just hasn’t been our time at the present moment.”

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Praising the side’s resilience, Maguire revealed that the effort and commitment of the playing group has never wavered despite their struggles to find wins.

And he conceded that the side must now shift their attention towards finishing the season strongly, whether they make the finals or not.

“It’s been a bit of a challenge that we’ve had over time, especially with the changing and injuries and things like that,” he said.

“The players and the staff have definitely worked extremely hard to give ourselves the opportunity.

“I think you take a fair bit from the journey that we’ve had, that’s for sure.

“I think all the players and staff, we’ve seen things right throughout the whole journey that you look back and reflect on certain things and what could have been.

“But ultimately at the end of the day we are where we are. We’ve got six games to go and we’ll focus on the next one now.”