The Brisbane Broncos snapped a three-match losing streak with a 50-24 victory over the Newcastle Knights at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday.
The Broncos led 24-0 after 21 minutes but were forced to scrap for the victory against a resurgent Newcastle outfit led by Willie Mason and Darius Boyd, both of whom had arguably their best outing in Knights colours.
Boyd laid on a 60-metre try for Danny Buderus and helped set up another with a scorching line-break as the Knights dragged themselves back to 26-24 with twenty minutes to play.
But the Queensland winger was also involved in a pair of incidents which saw the tide turn back in favour of Brisbane.
Boyd bombed a certain four-pointer when he spilt the ball over the try-line in the 49th minute.
And then, in the 65th minute, Newcastle were penalised in possession of the ball when Chris Houston was third-man in defending Boyd, who was belted in an Alex Glenn tackle.
All the wind went out of the Knights' sails when Sam Thaiday scored from the penalty - Brisbane then ran in three late tries to complete what looked like a thrashing on the scoreboard, but really was not.
Brisbane began the match in clinical fashion and it only took four minutes for them to get on the scoreboard.
It was no surprise that their Origin stars laid on the first try when Thaiday offloaded for Justin Hodges, who put a big left-hand fend into Junior Sau and then sent Gerard Beale over to score in his 50th match.
The Knights defence was looking suspect through the middle and the Broncos duly charged through the ruck to get in excellent position for Jack Reed.
The centre blasted his way through half-hearted attempts from Akuila Uate and Wes Naiqama, who was a late inclusion for an ill Timana Tahu.
Hodges was looking dangerous with every touch and only needed to get one-on-one with Sau again to post his first try, as the lead blew out to 24-0
Then the Broncos began to make mistakes.
Ben Hannant dropped a ball coming out of his own end and after Newcastle threw a few tricks at the Broncos, Buderus went the easy route, burrowing over from dummy-half to grab his first try and ignite the Knights.
A few minutes later Thaiday was penalised for doing too much in a tackle, and when Jarrod Mullen threw the perfect ball to put Naiqama outside his man, the Knights were back to 24-12.
In the next set Boyd busted through a lazy effort from Matt Gillett and surged through the centre of the field, drew Josh Hoffman and unloaded for Buderus to complete a 60-metre movement.
The Knights looked to have levelled the scores in the final minute of the half when Mullen picked up a ricocheted Peter Wallace kick inside his own 10 metres zone and raced the length of the field.
The try went to the video referee for approval and it was correctly ruled that Mullen was marginally offside when he picked up the ball after it had come off team-mate Chris Houston's legs.
Corey Parker then slotted a penalty goal as the siren sounded to see Brisbane go in 26-18 ahead at half-time.
Richie Fa'aoso surged onto a Kade Snowden pass and dotted down under the posts shortly after half-time, but that was the last time the Knights would trouble the scorers.
The Broncos retain second position on the ladder behind the Strom, while Newcastle drop to 13th on the back of four losses in a row.
Brisbane Broncos 50
Tries: Hodges 2, Beale, Reed, Copley, Thaiday, McCullough, Hoffman
Goals: Parker 7, Wallace 1
Newcastle Knights 24
Tries: Buderus 2, Naiqama, Fa'aoso
Goals: Naiqama 4