In one of his best-ever games, Adam Reynolds was the perfect puppeteer behind a Payne Haas-inspired Brisbane forward pack that dismantled competition leaders Canterbury in a stunning 42-18 win.
Reynolds left the field in the 75th minute clutching his right shoulder which he injured when scoring a try in the first half.
"It's a little sore," Reynolds said post-match.
"It went dead on me when I scored the try with pins and needles. I got it pretty bad that last one. It's okay now but I will see the medical staff when I get back."
In pouring rain, the Broncos did a Bulldogs on the Bulldogs at Suncorp Stadium on Thursday night, pulverising them in the middle in a riotous first half but also dazzling them out wide to inflict the first loss of the season on the visitors.
It was hardly believable that a Bulldogs side that had not conceded a point in the previous two matches trailed 34-0 at halftime.
"We were certainly humbled in that first half," Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo said.
"We had a lot of praise the first six or seven weeks, and rightly so at times, but the first half wasn't good enough."
By halftime, Brisbane had missed just three tackles to their opponents' 24.
The visitors were ill-disciplined and had forward Josh Curran and Sitili Tupouniua sin-binned, for hits on Payne Haas and Brendan Piakura respectively.
Tupouniua was put on report for a second time for lifting his knees into Piakura's head while in possession in the second half, a minute before winger Marcelo Montoya was binned for another high hit on Piakura.
Broncos halfback and captain Reynolds, in his 295th game, wants to play on in 2026 and after this performance he will have no shortage of suitors. The Broncos will have to pull out all stops to re-sign the 34-year-old.
By halftime he had scored a try and laid on three, two with pinpoint chip kicks for Deine Mariner to score. He put rampaging second-rower Xavier Willison in after two minutes and never looked back.
Reynolds also conjured a 40/20, another of his box of tricks. In the next set his halves partner Ben Hunt fired a cutout pass and winger Jesse Arthars had his 10th try of the season.
The performance of Haas was on another planet. He set Reynolds up for his try with a pass after rampaging into a hole.
Haas's first 33-minute stint yielded 140m from 15 runs.
Fullback Selwyn Cobbo, switching from wing to replace injured Reece Walsh, was accomplished at the back in just his third starting appearance in the role and played tough after injuring a shoulder. His left-side raid and silky pass put centre Gehamat Shibasaki over in the corner.
Montoya, who was put on report twice in the match, got the Bulldogs on the board courtesy of a neat Viliame Kikau pass.
Bulldogs second-rower Jacob Preston crossed after a Toby Sexton bomb and Bronson Xerri was recipient of another Kikau pass. Mariner was binned for hitting Kikau high to become the fourth sin-binning of the match.
Bulldogs playmaker Matt Burton was also put on report for a high tackle on Billy Walters, who scored late to ice the win for Brisbane.
