Brisbane Broncos vs North Queensland Cowboys highlights: NRL scores, blog

At home I can walk away when I get angry or bored. All these penalty kick decisions by Bennett made me feel so bad, that I HAD to walk away. But I feel good about the fact that I didn't spend a cent to support this rubbish. Bennett basically castrates his own players and the spectators. Every time it gets exciting and the Broncos are about to score a try, he throws a bucket of water onto the fire. The NRL should do something about that. These penalty kicks kill the game. Should only give 1 point for a penalty. That will stop this rubbish.

And yet they still won...

Right. Let's face it. Extra time is not going away, but golden "point" has to. How about this... If it's level at full time.. "overtime" for 5 minutes each way. For a team to win, they must score a try. No field goals of penalty goals allowed. The winning team gets TWO competition points but the winner still gets ONE (take a page from the NHL). No try = draw, one competition point each. Playoffs/grand final etc, this does apply. They play 5-10 minutes each way. If locked after this time, then go to golden try.

Had a few beers so wasn't very articulate ;) I've been thinking about it for a while now, you see scandal after scandal overseas. What measures do Australia have in place to stop things happening here? The betting companies & leagues are in bed with each other. They say there's no conflict of interest. Just like Enron, VW, Nestle, the US banks, on and on that list goes, said it's all good. The bottom line is for-profit companies can't be trusted to be morally sound. Ultimately they're going to make as much money as they can. Based on what other places have had, entire games are near impossible it rig, too many people involved. It's the exotics such as first points, first try scorer and the huge list of others. One person can generally make an influence there (such as Ryan Tandy first points from a penalty). For example the call last night. Seemed ludicrous, but no-one is going to investigate it. So if you were going to do something dodgy, why not? What are your odds of ever getting caught? Australia vs Pakistan in cricket, the "miracle comeback" it was even called. Seemed dodge, was dodge. However if they hadn't got caught fixing other matches years later, they'd have never found out that game was thrown. Remember betting companies are only for losers. If you google, lots of people will make 5-10k and their account will be banned. If they're closing accounts over small amounts, hard to imagine they're happy with $100k+ payouts. Tin foil hat? Perhaps. We've had the a cap scandal, premierships revoked, drug scandal. Only a matter of time before something else is next :)

Jokes boys. Matty Johns nailed it 'best club game ever'. Sorry to stir the pot - as you were.

woa, that is a big call spongebob.

If that is how you feel then go and watch something else.

Disagree that the Cowboys weren't the better side, but yes, I have no idea how that wasn't a try. Pleased that Gillett is finally picking up his act too, should start on the right edge for origin this year for the Maroons. Really want to see a couple of those guys do well, but they should have put the Cows away tonight. One positive for Broncos fans tho is that they will have their first choice halves pairing through origin. A rarity, that. I don't think tonighr was necessarily a reflection of Bennett's style - he likes good decision making, particularly from his halves, in addition to a good kicking game. I don't think either of those were on show tonight.

I wouldn't be taking that performance in my stride if I were them. They were outplayed tonight and essentially lost the game twice...at home on a Friday night...not to mention the script went strikingly similar to the GF last year...that they lost to the same side. I heard that they had a short turnaround. Fair enough. But coupled with the Penrith game are some possibly worrying signs. The lack of composure and mental toughness at big moments being top of the list. I love Ben Hunt as a player, he's one of my very favourites. I've seen him do little things that only current and future immortals do. But it's nowhere near enough. He seems like a real down to earth bloke who speaks well and isn't a flog. I'm surprised he struggles with focus though. He kicked the Cowboys into that game tonight. Not good enough.

Must be a New South Welshman or an AFL fan to say something like that.

I'm in awe of JT's competitiveness. He's achieved everything yet continues to turn up and play like his life depends on it. I reckon the Broncos should forego the 2 points at times and look for 6.

Cowboys unlucky yet Broncos robbed of a try to Gillett? It should never have went to golden point, Broncos were the better team and deserved to win in regulation time.

Great comment!

Not convinced by the Broncos. They play a very predictable, safe, conservative, grinding style of play. Bit like the Dragons when Bennett was at the helm. Look at the decisions to take 4 penalty goals. A couple of tries in those situations just about puts the Cowboys out of the match. By playing this grinding low scoring style the Broncos give the opposition a sniff - but opposition sides still need to be very good to beat them.

Just how good is it when these two teams meet. The last three games they have played have been terrific and a wonderful advertisement for the game, played hard, fast and fair (except for a bit of push me, shove you tonight). Cowboys didn't get the rub of the green, fair enough, but how good was Milford and it was great to see Roberts get some space to move, is there a quicker bloke playing the game at the moment? AND.... The oft maligned Laclan Maranta's effort to get out of goal in the second half was amazing. Great game, great crowd.

Well if they keep serving it up like that they shouldn't be expecting crowds of less than 50k. I mean who'd stay home and watch that sort of stuff on TV.

No technology can prevent human drama. By the way, what happened to the video ref talking through their decision making process? The need to be right all the time is going to eventually come back to bite the NRL.

What? No, they made so many great decisions...

The drama.

I'll happily admit that I completely missed that. That would suggest that the bunker kind of messed up that last one then.