NSW five-eighth Josh Reynolds lashed out with an extraordinary trip on former teammate Ben Barba as Canterbury slumped to their fourth straight NRL loss, a 41-10 thrashing by Brisbane on Friday night.
Reynolds was lucky not to be sent off but his indiscretion, the second time he was put on report in the second half, capped a night to forget for the State of Origin playmaker and the Bulldogs at Suncorp Stadium.
But at the end of a long rap sheet for the five-eighth, he still finished the game in the sheds after being sin-binned for a high tackle on Alex Glenn.
The Broncos, led by Barba and Ben Hunt, punished the mistake-riddled Dogs seven tries to two in front of a highly-appreciative crowd of 28,344.
Desperate to stop the rot after five losses from their past six matches, Brisbane resurrected their finals hopes in style while at the same time delivering a major dent to Canterbury's top-four claims.
Reynolds' availability for next Friday's clash with Parramatta is in grave doubt while Sam Kasiano also suffered a worrying foot injury.
The Broncos' demolition came as Hunt and Barba produced their best game together as a new playmaking pair, both scoring first-half tries and causing the Bulldogs grief on both sides of the ruck.
Barba has grown in confidence with each appearance at five-eighth but Hunt had lost his form since coach Anthony Griffin was given his notice a fortnight ago.
The halfback was not only sharp with the ball but his defence on the right-edge was top-notch and also pulled off an embarrassing strip on Tony Williams.
Former Bulldogs fullback Barba scored the try of the match on the stroke of halftime for a 20-6 lead.
The Bulldogs played themselves back into the encounter after the break with a Josh Jackson try and then looked set for another.
But Reynolds lashed out with his feet in a tackle near the line that collected Sam Thaiday in the face and resulted in a Brisbane penalty and him placed on report.
It proved a major turning point when Matt Gillett smartly put Corey Oates over soon after.
From there the floodgates opened as Thaiday and Hunt crossed again to seal their biggest win of the season.
Reynolds actually opened the scoring with a flukey two-kick try but Canterbury were their own worst enemies in the first half by completing just 12 of 18 sets and missing four times as many tackles as Brisbane.
Dogs coach Des Hasler would only issue a brief statement about Reynolds' night and gagged skipper Mick Ennis from speaking about the five-eighth at the post-match press conference.
"He had a bad night, he had a tough night, he's well aware of that," Hasler said.
"A little bit of frustration got the best part of him tonight but he's not like that. He's not that type of player.
"It was a tough lesson he learned tonight and he will cop his medicine and he will get on with it.
"That's all."
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