The Broncos – playing before an excellent crowd of 22,502 – took control midway through the first half with a try to Chris Walker, and led 14-2 at the break.

Brisbane overcame poor handling and repeated penalties to win comfortably and stay in the hunt for the NRL minor premiership, with winger Lote Tuqiri finding form by scoring a timely double.

The Raiders missed a golden opportunity to leapfrog Melbourne and St George Illawarra into the NRL top eight, again failing to win away from the buttress of Canberra Stadium.

Canberra now must beat Melbourne – who lost last night to the Bulldogs 24-16 – to qualify for the NRL finals.

Brisbane goalkicker Michael De Vere gave the home side the early 2-0 lead after referee Shayne Hayne penalised Raiders prop Ryan O’Hara for holding Bronco Brad Meyers down in the tackle.

Soon though, Canberra half Brett Finch earned the Raiders prime field position after being brought down illegally chasing his own kick, and fullback Clinton Schifcofske added the two points to even the scores after eight minutes.

Both sides – sensing the seriousness of the game - were trying to be cautious with the football. Brisbane in particular were happy to grind the ball forward and establish field position, rather than toss the ball wide for their explosive backline to create tryscoring opportunities.

After earning repeat sets of six the Raiders threatened to cross the Broncos tryline – using Ruben Wiki as a battering ram - but some slippery handling from Joel Monaghan relieved pressure on Brisbane, who went close down the other end after a break by veteran halfback Allan Langer.

Langer then threw an errant pass that was scooped up by Raiders five eighth Mark McLinden. Canberra looked certain to score down the right hand side, but Finch’s final pass to centre Rod Jensen was a mile forward, the error letting the Broncos off the hook for the second time.

Canberra tried to hit back immediately after regathering from the kick off, but video referee Brian Grant correctly ruled that centre Jason Croker was out of bounds when he batted the ball back to Jamaal Lolesi from Schifcofske’s grubber kick.

The Raiders were being helped forward by some ill-disciplined play by the Broncos – they received nine penalties from Hayne in the first half - but Canberra’s execution was off in attack and they were unable to strike back on the scoreboard.

In the 33rd minute the Broncos got a penalty for a Canberra flop, and star winger Lote Tuqiri scored in the corner to add insult to injury for the Raiders. De Vere landed his second conversion from the sideline, putting Brisbane out to a handy 14-2 lead at half time.

Brisbane then threw everything at Canberra after halftime, looking to crack the Raiders on the fringe of the ruck at every opportunity. Broncos captain Gorden Tallis snuck over for the four-pointer after shrugging a lazy tackle from Brett Finch.

De Vere missed his easiest conversion attempt of the afternoon, but Brisbane was comfortably clear, up 18-2 with just over half an hour remaining.

Tuqiri added his double with a steamrolling run on the hour to seal victory for the Broncos, which was closely followed by a try to centre Brent Tate.

Walker exploited the tired Raiders defence to nab his double in the 70th minute, the Broncos running away in the second stanza to win 36-2.