Brisbane Broncos have knocked off the unbeaten North Queensland Cowboys at a soggy Lang Park to kickstart their push for the top eight.
The Broncos scored three tries in the first 20 minutes, but the Cowboys hit back in one of the best first halves of the season so far.
The home side went on with the job in the second half to win 38-12, despite an amazing try-saving tackle by Tom Dearden, who sprinted across the ground to catch the Broncos' Selwyn Cobbo on a 90m intercept and drag him into touch centimetres short of the tryline.
At that point the visitors were only down 20-12 with half an hour left in the game, but two minutes later, fullback Scott Drinkwater dropped the ball coming off their line (one of his five errors in the match) and gave possession straight back to the Broncos.
A few seconds after that, Jake Granville switched off at marker and Brisbane sub Tyson Smoothy coasted 3 metres from dummy half for the easiest try of the night.
It was the first of three second-half tries for the Broncos as they ran up the score on their error-riddled northern cousins, and Cowboys coach Todd Payten said "the most disappointing part of the game" was watching his side fail to get on Dearden's level.
"Tommy Dearden makes this awesome defensive play — one of the better ones I've seen in a long time — and we just had no spark or reaction off the back of that," he said in the post-match press conference.
Captain Reuben Cotter agreed it should have been a match-turner.
"He didn't die on the play and worked his butt off," he said.
"There was a chance to get back in the game then and we just couldn't find it."
Earlier, in the opening game of the day, South Sydney edged out the Bulldogs 20-16 in a tough, physical encounter at the Olympic stadium for their first win of 2024, as the Dogs wait for a Good Friday win over the Bunnies extends to seven seasons.
Re-live all the news, scores and action below in our live blog.
[blog][sports newsletter] 
