The Canberra Raiders have completed their fairytale run and finished in the top 8, while the Broncos can look to 2011 after their incredible September record has come to an end.

The Raiders, who have now won six in a row, came out on top with a 18-16 win at Suncorp Stadium.

The Broncos came home strongly though, but fell just short as winger Jharal Yow Yeh and utility Matt Gillett scoring tries to bring the 38,000+ crowd to life.

Brisbane were always going to find it tough to win, let alone by 15 points without the inspiring Darren Lockyer, along with injuries to key players.

The task was only made tougher for the Broncos, after the Raiders scored the first two tries of the game through Daniel Vidot and Josh Dugan, before Broncos hooker Andrew McCullough scored to reduce the deficit.

Broncos kicker Corey Parker missed the easy kick however, to suggest that it just wasn’t the Broncos night.

It was the Raiders forwards in Tom Learoyd-Lahrs, David Shillington and Dane Tilse that laid the platform for the halves to do their jobs.

“We fell away at the end,” said representative prop Dave Shillington after Canberra led 12-4 at half time.

“We gave them a few chances to come back and beat us.”

Raiders coach David Furner believed that his side deserved to be in the finals this year after a strong run home.

“I was nervous in the (coach’s) box,” said Furner after the Raiders held on.

Furner isn’t phased by coming up against ladder leaders St George, and he’ll make sure that his team is high on confidence, after beating the Dragons a few weeks ago.

“I’m not going to jump into that,” said a cautious Furner.

Brisbane coach Ivan Henjak got his wish, with his side never giving up the entire game.

“I thought they had a pretty big go but not much went our way again,” said Henjak.

By ricky

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.