A late Newcastle surge saw them salvage a thrilling 18-all draw in Round 21 in a result that could still have a huge bearing on the make-up of the top eight this season.
While Brisbane will consider this game to be one that got away given they led for the vast majority, it was the Knights who shot out of the blocks with some brilliant play down the left edge paving the way for Zane Tetevano to score from a perfectly executed Jarrod Mullen grubber.
But the Broncos soon gained the ascendency with Justin Hodges impossible to stop out wide to level the scored and Corey Parker crashing over shortly before the break to give his side a six-point advantage.
Newcastle narrowed the gap in the 55th minute when Joseph Leilua crashed over in the corner, but they were soon down by eight as Josh McGuire broke through some flimsy defence on halfway before finding Jack Reed on his outside to make it 18-10.
Desperate to secure the points, the Knights were back in the contest with eight minutes remaining as Mullen sent Beau Scott crashing over for 18-10. And they had a chance to win it at the death as Mullen’s long ball found Dane Gagai whose brilliant flick sent Akuila Uate over to make it 18-all. But with regular goal kicker Tyrone Roberts on the sideline, the kicking duties were handed to Craig Gower and his sideline conversion never looked like going over.
Both sides had the chance to win it in golden point extra time but couldn’t get the job done.
The stats suggested Newcastle should have won the game, having run for 1973 metres to Brisbane’s 1751 and made 53 tackles fewer.
The Knights’ outside backs all impressed with Boyd (181), Kevin Naiqama (192), Dane Gagai (176), Joseph Leilua (146) and Uate (191) all making big metres.
McGuire had a blinder for the visitors with 195 metres and 50 tackles.
