Punches may have been thrown but Brisbane showed little fight as the New Zealand Warriors got their NRL finals hopes back on track with a 26-6 rout at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday.
The Broncos' frustration against a dominant Warriors boiled over in the 33rd minute when the usually sedate No.9 Andrew McCullough threw a couple of haymakers at Chris Satae for raising an elbow in the tackle.
Both got marched to the sin-bin but there was no stopping the Warriors' juggernaut as they bounced back from last round's worrying 36-4 loss to Penrith to leapfrog eighth-placed Brisbane on the NRL ladder.
A week after the Broncos looked to have locked up a finals spot, they are now precariously placed at eighth with a -26 point deficit after the Warriors snapped the hosts' three game winning run.
The Warriors ended their own worrying two game losing slide with the five-tries-to-one thrashing in front of 37,493 largely shellshocked fans.
Brisbane back-rower Jaydn Su'A limped off in the 44th minute with a suspected knee injury.
Warriors coach Stephen Kearney wasn't getting too far ahead of himself but admitted the win would ensure less talk across the ditch from critics.
"Not that we were listening to much of it but there was a lot of noise out there at this time of year for the club in the past and it's been a real challenge on the back of last Friday's performance (against Penrith)," he said.
"It was important that we responded really well."
Kearney's only complaint was Satae being binned.
"Why didn't Chris get put on report? I didn't think Chris needed to go to the bin - I don't think anyone has an explanation for some of the stuff (decisions) nowadays," he said.
Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett was expected to savour career victory No.500 on Sunday after the Broncos won five of their last six games and with the top four seemingly in their sights.
Yet Brisbane had no answer for the powerful Warriors with hulking prop Agnatius Paasi leading the way.
Halfback Shaun Johnson and hooker Issac Luke ran amok as nuggety centre Solomone Kata crossed for a double.
Remarkably New Zealand are the NRL's road Warriors with the best away record in the competition, winning seven from nine.
Brisbane lost NSW centre James Roberts (Achilles) and forward Tevita Pangai (hamstring) before kick-off.
The Warriors led 16-0 at halftime before Kata bagged his double in the 50th minute and Paasi iced the result when he bulldozed over five minutes later to make it 26-0.
Bennett was upset captain Darius Boyd was denied a 46th minute try when Joe Ofahengaue was ruled to have obstructed Warriors No.1 Roger Tuivasa-Sheck.
"I thought it was a try, simple as that. Everyone at the ground thought it was a try," he said.
