Maguire warns Broncos against fairytale expectations after shock loss

After Brisbane's fourth straight loss handed the battling Dragons their first win of the season, Broncos coach Michael Maguire has warned that expecting another fairytale ending is a pipe dream.

The Broncos were diabolical in the 30-26 loss to last-placed St George Illawarra on Sunday at home, losing their fourth straight game and sitting 11th position after 13 rounds, with five wins and seven losses.

They were in an identical situation last year before launching a stunning run to their first premiership in 19 years.

Coincidentally, they host the Gold Coast on Saturday — the same team they played at Lang Park in round 14 last year when a 44-14 win turned their season around — but Maguire said it was foolish to expect history to repeat for the Broncos in 2026.

"If we're relying on past history we might find ourselves in a little bit of bother," he said.

"Everyone can tell a good story of the past, but it's what you're doing right now.

"I can compare stories, but I've never seen two years the same. I've never seen a group of men do it in a way they've done it in the past."

Brisbane's finals run was littered with miraculous comebacks from enormous deficits and there have been multiple games this year where they have threatened to emulate those feats.

That includes Sunday's clash, where the Broncos trailed 30-8 before tries to Josiah Karapani, Xavier Willison and Jesse Arthars in the last 12 minutes made the scoreline look more respectable.

Payne Haas, who was immense in his first game back from injury, was brutal in his assessment summary of the Broncos' efforts.

"I don't know what to say. Really poor and probably one of the worst performances I've been a part of," Haas told ABC Sport after the game.

"We had no intent, no energy and it's pretty disappointing it's how our season's gone, we save it until the last 10 minutes to play our footy.

"We're all talk at the moment. We keep on saying we're going to do all these important things on the field, but to be honest, we're just BS-ing each other."

Alamoti makes amends as Panthers win top-of-the-table clash

The Penrith Panthers have sealed a remarkable victory over the New Zealand Warriors in a high quality thriller in Western Sydney on Sunday night.

Round 13 of the NRL clearly saved the best for last, with the Panthers overcoming the Warriors 20-18 in a game that featured some of the best attack seen all year.

Earlier the Dragons won their first NRL game in 295 days, ending a 15-game run of defeats by hanging on to beat a blundering Brisbane Broncos side 30-26, before Canberra wiped the floor with a lack-lustre Cowboys team 26-12 to snap a two game losing streak.

It was at Western Sydney stadium though that the NRL truly sparkled, with two evenly matched sides going hell for leather over 80 sensational minutes.

The Panthers rested Nathan Cleary, Isaah Yeo and Brian To'o with the Warriors giving Mitch Barnett and Kurt Capewell a rest after their Origin exploits midweek.

But that made little difference to an extraordinary contest of the highest possibly quality.

Blues Origin debutant Casey McLean scored two tries and wing Paul Alamoti added two more for the Panthers, making up for a horror defensive error that gave the Warriors the lead late on.

McLean opened the scoring for the ladder leaders before Jacob Laban hit back for the Warriors in a tat-for-tat first half.

The Warriors then had two tries disallowed — first for a marginal offside call and the second for a forward pass before the Panthers made them pay with a clinical spell before the half time break with McLean adding a second and Alamoti spectacularly putting down for his first.

The Warriors hit back with Taine Tuaupiki finishing a brilliant Wahs move before Alamoti's horror slip handed Alofiana Khan-Pereira a try that put the visitors ahead.

However, Dylan Edwards, not selected for New South Wales mid-week, stepped up for the Panthers late, pulling off a terrific try-saving tackle on Laban to keep Penrith in the contest before setting up Alamoti in the corner with a beautifully-delayed pass in the 70th minute to put the Panthers four points clear at the top of the ladder.

Look back at how all the action unfolded in our live blog.