Jonathan Wright had the ball knocked loose over the line when likely to score in the early moments, while it was a matter of inches when Nathan Gardner stepped on the side line chalk with a chance to touch down in the corner s few minutes later, with the two near misses proving costly in the final wash up.
The Sharks never gave up however despite at one stage being behind 14-0 and after two enterprising tries still had a chance before the final kickoff failed to go the 10 metres and gifted the Broncos the ball for the last minute of the match.
After their first near miss when Wright was denied it would be Bronco hooker Andrew McCullough to open the scoring with dummy half try to give his team a 6-0 lead.
Then in a second critical turnaround, not long after Gardner tip-toed into touch with a chance to score, the Broncos marched up the field and Ben Barber made them pay with a second try, this one coming on the stroke of half time.
The second conversion was wide but Brisbane would lead 10-0 at the break.
A third try, once again against the run of play, this time when halfback Ben Hunt pounced on a loose ball and raced 60-metres to score, took it out to 14-0 making it a difficult assignment for the Sharks.
Sosaia Feki would put the Sharks in the game with a bonus point try after backing up and receiving a Sam Tagataese off-load, with Daniel Holdsworth converting to make it 14-7, but a Josh Hoffman try saw Brisbane almost seal the result as they went 18-7 in front.
Wright would score a long range try after a great Andrew Fifita run to bridge the gap to four points with a minute to go, but when Holdsworth’s kick off failed to go the 10 metres the Broncos would play out the final seconds and secure a win.
The Sharks were brave in defeat as they kept fighting despite the bounce of the ball going the way of their opponents and in the end run were probably a touch unlucky not to be progressing to the Nines final.
