The Broncos have won a final-round contest against the Bulldogs 34-20, in a game that doubled as superstar prop Payne Haas’s farewell from Brisbane.
Haas scored the opening try as the Broncos notched up their equal highest score of a disappointing 2026 season, tied with their tally from a 34-30 win over the Raiders four weeks earlier.
Halfback Ben Hunt said the team had extra motivation to send Haas out a winner before he heads to South Sydney from 2027.
“Payne means a hell of a lot to this club, he really does,” Hunt told ABC Sport.
“It’s been a very disappointing year, but to come out here tonight, the boys really carried themselves in a great way and really showed up for Payne.
“He deserved the win tonight.”
The teams were tied 10-10 at half-time, but the Broncos, sparked by Hunt and hooker Billy Walters, exploded after the break with four tries in 15 minutes to jump out to a 24-point lead.
Canterbury hit back with tries to Viliame Kikau and Lachlan Galvin, but they could not get close enough to truly challenge the Broncos, who will finish 14th or 15th in their failed premiership defence.
Look back all the action in our live blog below, and check out all the stats in the full ScoreCentre.
Live: Bulldogs vs Broncos at Homebush
That’s where we’ll leave you
We’ll be back tomorrow night for Titans-Dolphins and Rabbitohs-Roosters, featuring what will no doubt be another emotional tribute to Jai Arrow.
Join us then.
I can’t believe this is how it ends
Payne Haas has played his last game in a Broncos jersey (For now, go the cries from Brisbane fans) and he’s done it in a dead-rubber in front of 13,000 fans in Sydney.
For a duo like him and Pat Carrigan to end like this just feels wrong.
And Adam Reynolds is heading for retirement. Such a huge part of the core of the 2025 premiership team is gone.
Canterbury coach Cameron Ciraldo is miserable
The Bulldogs coach is not happy with that performance.
“We had a lot to play for. It’s been a tough up and down year. We wanted to finish the year strong. I expected us to put in our best performance of the year and we were a long way off that.
“Everything we did this week was about getting our best performance tonight and I’m shattered we didn’t.”
Are you listening, Reece?
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FULL-TIME: The Broncos close out 2026 with victory over the Bulldogs
So it ends 34-20 to the Broncos, which is the equal-most points they’ve scored all year, tied with their round 23 tally against the Raiders.
Halfback Ben Hunt says they did it for Payne Haas before he sets sail for Redfern.
“Payne means a hell of a lot to this club. It’s been a disappointing year but the boys carried themselves really well.”
79′ An absolute bottle job
The Broncos have a 4 vs 1 on the right and they manage to bomb it as Hayze Perham throws a no-look pass.
75′ Bulldogs get the kick-off back after a ridiculous bounce
The short kick-off is well short, bounces even further back, but then goes forward for two bounces and the Bulldogs regather in front of a shell-shocked Broncos side.
The luck is turning.
Galvin scores and the Dogs are coming
Lachie Galvin’s grubber takes a deflection and Grant Anderson can’t clean up, with the halfback regathering the ricochet to score.
Stephen Crichton leaves the conversion wide left, so they still trail 34-20 with five six minutes left.
72′ Ben Hunt comes up with another play
He goes for the 40/20 from dummy half and Connor Tracey is forced to bat it back into play, but he can only knock it dead.
But it’s a galaxy brain play as it turns out, because they’ve regathered the short dropout through Jacob Kiraz and got a piggyback penalty for a crusher tackle.
The Dogs are over
Viliame Kikau scores a brilliant barnstorming try after a monster fend on Tom Duffy.
And the broncos have chosen to receive the kick-off as the Bulldogs finally arrive in the second half.
63′ The Broncos have an all-timer taken off them
The Bulldogs spin it right to get out of their own red zone and Lachlan Galvin launches it back left to Stephen Crichton, who fires another long ball, but Grant Anderson flies out of nowhere to intercept.
He gets caught and spun around by the defence as he looks to offload.
Eventually Tom Duffy arrives, but by that point Anderosn has to offload behind his back, and he’s thrown it forward!
Duffy raced away to score, and only realised it had been called forward after he got up to celebrate.
Josiah Karapani is over for another Broncos try
This is getting out of hand as the Bulldogs surrender possession and Grant Anderson tip-toes up the sideline to get them flying upfield.
Ben Hunt again chips over early in the count and Josiah Karapani catches on the full, but a stumble stops him from scoring.
So he simply reloads and orchestrates a more straightforward left-side shift, ending in a stunning putdown by Karapani.
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His impressive night just gets better.
The Broncos are pouring it on
Ben Hunt comes up with what looks like a little improvisational play, propping off his left foot on the left side of the field to catch the Bulldogs’ defence napping.
He kicks high into a vacant zone behind the left flank and it’s perfectly weighted for Jordan Riki to catch and score.
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Ben Hunt joins the party
And it’s a trademark Hunt try in his 373rd NRL game as he jags back hard off his right foot to bamboozle Stephen Crichton and Viliame Kikau.
He bumps off Connor Tracey and the Broncos have the first two tries of the second half.
47′ Broncos regather off the kick-off
The Bulldogs utilise the new rule and choose to receive, but the Broncos land it in no man’s land and manage to regather.
The Broncos start the second half hot
Pat Carrigan offloads in the middle of the field and Billy Walters wastes no time firing the ball out wide, where Kotoni Staggs unleashes Grant Anderson down the right wing.
Walters backs up through the middle and gets it back to score.
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44′ Josiah Karapani is having a worldie
He’s been immense under the high ball, near enough to flawless in fact, and can’t be stopped when it’s in his hands.
He’s just had his 10th tackle bust and he’s already approach 100 metres.
41′ The Broncos start off the second half
Harry Hayes charges back for the Bulldogs.
HALF-TIME: It’s tied 10-10 at the break
The Bulldogs plays some audacious attacking football to end the half but Jacob Preston’s grubber ends up with the Broncos and the whistle is blown.
An entertaining half of football, with both sides showing why they’re not in the finals and giving glimpses as to why that frustrates their fans so much.
dan