Broncos Buck Clumsy 'Dogs

The Bulldogs four-match winning streak has come to an end tonight in Brisbane with the Broncos taking the points through a convincing 25-6 victory at Suncorp Stadium.

The Bulldogs were never in the hunt after numerous mistakes early in the match as the Broncos kicked out to an early 12-0 lead courtesy of three unconverted tries to Tame Tupou, Shaun Berrigan and Darius Boyd.

Tupou found the line out wide after Shaun Berrigan made a break down the left hand side before finding a flying Tupou who opened the scoring. Corey Parker missed the relatively easy conversion to see the score remain 4-0 after just three minutes.

The Bulldogs continued to hand over possession through silly errors and the Broncos made them pay heavily with yet another try just four minutes later to utility Shaun Berrigan. Once again Parker was unsuccessful and after seven minutes of football the home side led 8-0.

With six Origin stars backing up, in front of a healthy crowd of 30,589 the wounded Maroons contingent were out to impress and in the 14th minute they crossed out wide through young Darius Boyd as the Brisbane faithful erupted. Parker missed the touch conversion and despite scoring three tries, the scoreboard read 12-0.

Both sides then battled it out amongst the forwards but poor ball handling was once again the 'Dogs downfall as they squandered any chance of hitting back. Broncos captain Darren Lockyer came very close to extending the early lead in the 17th minute only to knock the ball on whilst attempting to ground a well-weighted grubber.

The Australian captain however made no mistake five minutes out from half-time when he bursted through the soft Bulldogs defence to wrong-foot fullback Luke Patten and score under the sticks. Parker converted his first shot at goal from five attempts to give the Broncos an 18-point buffer going into the break.

Going forty four minutes without receiving a penalty certainly didn't help the 'Dogs cause but when that whistle blew early in the second half the Bulldogs pounced at the opportunity and scored out wide after Daniel Holdsworth threw an unsighted inside ball to utility Reni Maitua who dove over to score. Hazem El Masri had no troubles with the conversion and the Bulldogs were in with a sniff.

With points on the board and some improved ball handling, the Bulldogs began to mount several more attacks on the Brisbane defence only to be let down once more through unnecessary offloads.

Five minutes later Tupou found himself on the end of a brilliant Lockyer cut-out pass before he squeezed over to score in the corner.

Parker made up for past misses and slotted the ball from out wide as the Broncos took a handy 24-6 lead.

From there the Bulldogs were all but over and it showed throughout the players body language as they walked back into position and rarely backed up as support runners.

With 15 minutes remaining Lockyer sealed the victory with a field goal to boost the home side out in front by 19 points.

The Bulldogs then continued to throw the ball around but their last tackle options simply weren't up to the standard of the Broncos. The six points scored by the 'Dogs is their lowest score posted in the 2006 season.