Round 17

From the opening set it was clear this was going to be a physical contest. Hunters’ forward Sylvester Namo came off the back fence from the kick-off and launched himself into a wall of Sunshine Coast defenders, leaving multiple bodies in his wake including Falcons’ prop Max Bailey who was forced from the field.

With the tone set, both sides got to work as the Sunshine Coast locals watched on.

Brisbane chalked up their sixth straight win at home to cement their finals position in Round 17, with Tesi Niu and Kotoni Staggs putting on a masterclass performance for the fifth-placed Broncos.

The Broncos dominated the opening stages of the match and Delouise Hoeter capitalised on the advantage of an extra man created by Dragons prop Tariq Sims' sinbinning for a late tackle on Adam Reynolds to open the scoring in the third minute.

Both sides are missing key men with Payne Haas succumbing to a shoulder injury and Kurt Capewell and Selwyn Cobbo on Origin duty while Dragons skipper Ben Hunt is in Queensland camp.

Having lost two on the bounce to the Cowboys and Storm, conceding 72 points in the process, the Broncos need to tighten up their defence and return to the formula that delivered them seven straight wins between round 7-14.

In the final nine rounds the Knights face only two sides currently inside the top eight, so there's good reason for optimism on the back of Friday's drubbing of the Titans.

One of those sides inside the eight is Souths, who head to Newcastle full of confidence after Mitchell's impressive return in the win over the Eels.

Both sides are missing key men on Origin duty but there's enough quality on show to suggest this will be a cracking contest in front of a big crowd in Knights homeland.

The Hunters escaped without injury from last Saturday’s thrilling 22-20 win over Central Queensland Capras in Rockhampton and they are determined to finish the season in style against the fourth-placed Seagulls at Bycroft Oval. 
 
The Hunters held on for victory over the Capras when they were under pressure with two men in the sin bin due to professional fouls. However, they lamented their ball retention after gaining a 14-0 lead after just 15 minutes.