Brisbane have made a statement with a 22-8 NRL win over the Sydney Roosters in a match pockmarked by an ugly Dylan Napa hit on Andrew McCullough.
Napa was put on report after leading with his head in a tackle that forced the Brisbane hooker to be taken from Allianz Stadium on a medicab.
He was also sin-binned for the 24th minute incident that was almost identical to the one that left Brisbane's Korbin Sims with a broken jaw in May.
The Broncos said that McCullough suffered a concussion and a lacerated mouth.
An initial diagnosis cleared him of a break however Broncos coach Wayne Bennett pointed out that Sims wasn't diagnosed with a broken jaw until after he had scans.
Napa will come under the scrutiny of the match review committee on Sunday and could be set for a lengthy stint on the sidelines.
Sims missed four weeks after being hit by Napa in round 11, however the Roosters front-rower was not charged for that incident.
It prompted Bennett to hit out at Napa, accusing him of showboating and failing in his duty of care.
Bennett held his tongue on Saturday night but was clearly displeased that two of his players had been felled by Napa leading with his head in the one season.
"I could make myself a headline but I'm not going to do it," Bennett said.
"I'll leave you with this guys, you're all journalists here, you see what I see, why don't you write the stories?"
Asked if Napa had a problem with his technique, Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson said: "I think he's a physical player and he's aggressive in the way he goes about it.
"The first thing is it's not good to see Andrew in that way .... if that was (Roosters skipper Jake Friend) I wouldn't like to see him that way.
"But I also support Naps in the way that he plays the game."
The Broncos came into round 24 in seventh but fired a shot across the bow of the rest of the competition with a comprehensive win over the second-placed Roosters.
The Roosters were often their own worst enemies, coming up with 15 errors on their way to a second straight loss to put them on uneven footing just two weeks out from the finals.
Hooker Friend had a monumental game, making 71 tackles, just shy of Shaun Fensom's alltime record of 74 for Canberra.
With Napa off the field, the Broncos struck through Jamayne Isaako who produced an acrobatic put-down to give his side a 12-8 lead.
And when Daniel Tupou made a mess of an Anthony Milford bomb, Kodi Nikorima picked up the spoils to put the Broncos in front 20-8 at the break.
When Latrell Mitchell was sin-binned in the 56th minute for a professional foul, Isaako booted the only points of the second-half with a penalty goal to extend the Broncos' advantage to 14 points.
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