Anthony Griffin says there are no excuses for the Broncos' shock 24-22 loss to the Sharks at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night, despite his side hardly touching the ball in the second half.
Leading 22-0 after 43 minutes, the Broncos relinquished their lead to Sharks within a 22-minute period as the visitors piled on 24 unanswered points.
Cronulla enjoyed a mountain of possession in the second stanza, controlling the ball 64 percent of the time with a 95 percent completion rate.
Between the 50th and 65th minute, the Sharks held the Steeden for 12 out of 13 sets, which led to three tries before Sosaia Feki crossed for the match winner with four minutes to play.
While Griffin did highlight the Sharks' dominance with the ball in the second half, he refused to use it as an excuse for his side's loss.
"A dumb penalty on the fifth play and a number of restarts and a couple of dropped bombs [meant] we just spent most of the last 25 minutes defending our line," Griffin said.
"Possession and the bounce of the ball – anything that could happen did in that last 25 minutes. Unfortunately we threw away a lot of our hard work from that first 55 minutes.
"We were obviously in control and I thought our attitude was really good. They took three sets to get their first try and we had one set in 15 minutes there at one stage.
"We had 10 sets in the second half – I've never seen anything like it. They were always going to attack at some stage and got 19 sets in the second half without an error so they were always going to be hard to beat tonight."
The two-point loss inside the dying minutes marks the fourth occasion this season where the Broncos have blown a lead heading into the final 10 minutes of the contest, after doing so against the Roosters, Rabbitohs and Titans earlier this season.
Heavy favourites heading into the match, the Broncos appeared on course to win in a canter, but once the Sharks crossed for their first try in 324 minutes of football, the floodgates opened as their confidence grew.
"They were always going to be hard to beat. They've obviously got their personnel back and have their halves back. They are a very good football team as they showed tonight," Griffin added.
"There are heaps of things we could have done better and unfortunately that's happened. We have a week or two now to freshen up and we'll move on.
"[But when] you lead 22-0 there's no excuse."
Brisbane skipper Justin Hodges was quick to reiterate the sentiments of his coach, rueing the lack of possession inside the final third of the game.
"Like 'Hook' said, in the last 25 minutes we didn’t have the ball and they got all the bounces and they used their opportunities well," Hodges said.
"We didn’t have the ball to attack for most of that second half. That's what happens in footy – you give a team a sniff and the rest is history."
