The Brisbane Broncos defeated the PNG Hunters 26-12 in front of a sold out National Football Stadium in their pre-season trial match on Saturday night.
In a surprising late change, Broncos forward Sam Thaiday started in the hooking role for his side.
The NRL powerhouse wasted no time as they displayed their trademark second man play to set up winger Jonus Pearson to score the first try of the game. Jordan Kahu converted for an early 6-0 lead.
The Hunters were their own worst enemies making too many errors – including second rower John Andy playing the ball incorrectly on multiple occasions to give up plenty of attacking opportunity to the Broncos.
However, in a good sign for the home side, the Hunters manage to defend well and they scored through experience forward Enoch Maki who muscled his way to score.
With a success conversion by Charlie Simon, both sides were locked at 6-6l with more than 20 minutes gone in the game.
The Broncos then struggled for execution and the Hunters scored again through halfback Watson Boas, sending the crowd into jubilation. The home side were up 12-6 going into halftime break.
Hunters experienced players, led by Willie Minoga and Enoch Maki performed well for their side; but it was the Broncos star Anthony Milford who came into action during the second half to steer his side to victory.
He took control of his side and put stand-in skipper Alex Glenn into a hole to score to turn the time for his team.
He then repeated the same effort soon after, but this time he slotted in a grubber kick for a flying Korbin Sims to score as the NRL side started to show its strength.
Brisbane then scored two more tries via Corey Oates and Kahu to put the game out of reach of the home side and to close out the game 26-12.
BRISBANE BRONCOS 26 (J Pearson, A Glenn, K Sims, J Kahu, C Oates tries; Kahu 3 goals) defeated PNG Hunters 12 (E Maki, W Boas tries; C Simon 2 goals) at Oil Search National Football Stadium, Port Moresby
