![\"Brisbane](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/28ddce3f589c905d44a8b46779048c4dd1c5583c.jpeg\")
Brisbane centre Kotoni Staggs (left) celebrates his first-half try.Getty Images<\/p>\nA controversial bunker call has kept Brisbane\u2019s faint finals hopes alive \u2013 and denied Penrith one of the season\u2019s great defensive efforts.<\/p>\n
The Broncos triumphed 14-12 on a soggy Thursday night in Sydney, but need to win their remaining seven games to be any hope of defending their title.<\/p>\n
Victory against heavyweights Penrith at CommBank Stadium was a good start.<\/p>\n
Penrith pushed hard for points and with two minutes remaining thought they had earned a fresh set just metres from the Brisbane line.<\/p>\n
Brian To\u2019o toed the ball ahead, Paul Alamoti collected the ball and threw it back in-field, then Broncos winger Josiah Karapani was tackled into touch by To\u2019o and Liam Martin.<\/p>\n
Penrith challenged the on-field ruling of a Panthers\u2019 knock-on, only for bunker official Grant Atkins to rule there was a \u201cmutual infringement\u201d when referee Todd Smith blew the whistle as Karapani caught the ball.<\/p>\n
The Panthers were unable to get the ball back and shoot for the miracle play.<\/p>\n
They were on the back foot for most of the second half, with fullback Dylan Edwards phenomenal in defence. He denied Karapani up the other end of the field, and did not stop running.<\/p>\n
Penrith will finish the weekend in first place, but only one win clear of the Warriors and Roosters, provided both clubs win.<\/p>\n
They face Parramatta next Saturday night, while Brisbane take on the in-form Cowboys. They have so much firepower and class in players such as Reece Walsh, who was outstanding with three try assists and a crucial sideline conversion that gave Brisbane a late lead they never gave up. Their destiny is now in their hands.<\/p>\n
Brisbane centre Kotoni Staggs (left) celebrates his first-half try.Getty Images<\/p>\n
There was plenty of spice before half-time with Edwards rushing in to shove Ezra Mam after the Broncos five-eighth had clashed with Martin.<\/p>\n
Then Panthers prop Liam Henry objected to Payne Haas giving him a facial and another melee broke out before Haas was penalised.<\/p>\n
The Broncos trotted out one of their strongest teams all year, with skipper Adam Reynolds (hamstring) and Ezra Mam (shoulder) back in the starting halves.<\/p>\n
And they looked sharp early when Jordan Riki pounced on a Reece Walsh kick to score.<\/p>\n
But when back-rower Brendan Piakura went low and suffered another concussion, the Broncos looked out of sorts, and Penrith made them immediately pay by catching them short for numbers on the right edge via Brian To\u2019o.<\/p>\n
![\"Tempers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1435137c44d8c32657050801724488a0cd099b79.jpeg\")
Tempers fray in the first half.Getty Images<\/p>\n
Brisbane hit back through Kotoni Staggs, who did well to stay in the field of play when tackled by Edwards.<\/p>\n
But the home side slowly mounted pressure and enjoyed a few repeat sets. Brisbane did not help themselves nby giving away silly penalties, like Walsh did when trying to make sure Casey McLean was shoved back in to the in-goal when already tackled.<\/p>\n
Scott Sorensen came on to the field and showed tremendous speed to race 30m before diving for the line, only to be denied by Deine Mariner\u2019s feet. Mariner fell backwards, and his feet had nowhere else to go except beneath the ball.<\/p>\n
The Panthers did not have to wait long to get across line, however, with a slick move to the right handing To\u2019o a double.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A controversial bunker call has kept Brisbane\u2019s faint finals hopes alive \u2013 and denied Penrith one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-804409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}