Raiders fall to Brisbane in nail-biter

With GIO Stadium turning into Papa’s House under Friday night lights, both teams came out hard and fast.

Coming straight out of dummy half, Billy Walters clutched the first points of the match to see the Broncos in front by six.

But it didn't take the Green Machine too long to put their first points on the board, with Simi Sasagi producing a sneaky offload to Kaeo Weekes, throwing off the Broncos defence to lock the score at 6-all.

With Ethan Sanders putting the ball back into play, Ata Mariota came through to score his first try of the season; this extended the Raiders' lead to 12-6.

Patrick Carrigan was sin-binned in the 23rd minute for a high tackle on Corey Horsburgh.

Even though the Broncos were a man down, Ezra Mam went over cleanly not long after to close the gap to 12-all.

Following a line dropout, the Broncos backed this up through Grant Anderson on the wing, going over with no Raiders in sight.

Just when we thought the first half was locked away, it was Kaeo Weekes and Simi Sasagi once again combining in the dying seconds to put the Raiders 18-16 in front going into the sheds.

Not even two minutes into the second half, Owen Pattie barged over to reach over the tryline and extend the Raiders’ lead by eight.

The Raiders had an opportunity after Jed Stuart put the ball back into play, where Zac Hosking got his hands on the ball at the last minute; this, however, was reversed due to a knock-on in back play.

But it was take two for Zac Hosking after Pattie grubbered the ball for him to grab and ground it perfectly.

Five from five conversions from Sanders saw the score 30-16.

However, the celebrations didn't last long as Payne Haas made a linebreak off the back of an offload from 20 metres out to break through and score just next to the posts.

The Broncos quickly backed up through Grant Anderson once again as he barged through the Raiders’ defence and slid over for a try.

This saw the Green Machine in front by only two with 12 minutes to go.

With five minutes to go, Brisbane saw the opportunity on the right edge through Hayze Perham, who broke through multiple Raiders’ defenders and scored to put them in front by four.

With the Raiders having the last roll of the dice, Strange found Kaeo Weekes with a grubber kick but the cruel bounce of the ball saw Brisbane clean it up and save the try.

With only thirty seconds left on the clock, Sasagi found Xavier Savage in the right corner but after being sent up to the bunker, the replay showed Savage stepping out before the put down.

This saw the final score read 34-30 with the Broncos taking the win.

The Raiders will go into Round 26 with the bye before facing off against the Cowboys in round 27 in Townsville to cap off their 2026 season.