Brisbane beat Titans to re-claim the Local Derby trophy

Forget a game of two halves, it was a half of two halves.

After initially blitzing Brisbane in the early exchanges, the Broncos bounced back and beat the Titans to take back the Macca's Local Derby with a strong performance in front of their home crowd.

Brisbane Broncos 36 - Gold Coast Titans 28

The Titans started brilliantly.

After just two minutes, Kevin Proctor opened the scoring, finishing off an Ash Taylor grubber.

The Broncos kicked out on the full from the restart and the Titans again went into attack.

At the six minute mark the Titans scored again.  This time is was Jamal Fogarty who floated across field, looking and probing the defensive line before kicking in behind for Corey Thompson to make it 10-0.

Five minutes later it was another Fogarty kick that led to a try with the half-back finding AJ Brimson who, in a finish reminiscent of his State of Origin try for Queensland, dashed through to pick up the grubber and backflipped as he put the ball down.

At the 14-minute mark, it was Mitch Rein who split the line, finding Tyrone Peachey who in turn found Brimson and then the ball went pack to Peachey to finish off an exciting passage of play through the middle.

Leading 22-0, that's when the momentum shifted.

After notching three back-to-back sets, Brisbane marched down field and into attack.  

Anthony Don tried to cut off a long ball, but couldn't get a finger to it as Herbie Farnworth opened the scoring.

23 minutes in and Brisbane scored again. This time it was Milford finding Isaako who crossed under the posts.

A major turning point occurred off Brisbane's next attacking raid.  Into space down the right hand side, Xavier Coates kicked back in-field and Tyson Gamble re-gathered.  The referee deemed AJ Brimson interfered in the play the ball and the Titans fullback was sent for 10 minutes in the bin.

With eight minutes to go in the half, Isaako beat Brian Kelly off a kick return and dashed the length of the field with Corey Thompson chasing.  Xavier Coates found a pass off Isaako and ran to the corner to score.

The Broncos had one more try left before the half, with Isaako scoring to level the scores at 22.

In the early minutes of the second half, the Titans lost Corey Thompson to injury.  Brian Kelly moved to the left wing, with Beau Fermor coming off the bench for his first NRL appearance of 2021.

The Titans had the best attacking chance early, but an Ash Taylor cut-out pass found the outstretched hand of Broncos winger Corey Oates who grabbed the intercept an ran 95 metres to score.

Jesse Arthurs scored another and then Jamayne Isaako converted a penalty goal after the Titans kicked out on the full from a goal-line drop-out.  

David Fifita looked to have closed the margin, with the second rower putting a grubber through, regathering and crossing the line. 

Given a try on the field, the decision was overturned by the bunker after it was deemed that Fifita had lost the ball.

The next chance for the Gold Coast side came minutes later.  A cross-field bomb from Fogarty was collected by Brian Kelly who also crossed the line, but a Broncos hand stripped the ball as he attempted to put the ball down.

The points finally came through Mitch Rein.  Close to the line, the hooker barged his way over to score.  Fogarty converted and the margin was back to eight points with 11 minutes remaining.

Two minutes later, it was almost a piece of Mitch Rein magic.  A spiralling bomb from Jamal Fogarty found the turf, with Kelly collecting and finding 20 metres in broken play before passing to Fifita who kicked into the in-goal.  Rein chased in desperation, flicking the ball back in goal for Fifita to dive on.  It was centimetres in it, as Fifita put the ball onto the dead-ball line.

The Titans travel to Campbelltown next week to take on the Wests Tigers.