In the final regular season game, the nib Newcastle Knights went down 35-22 to the Brisbane Broncos at Suncorp Stadium.
The side suffered a six tries to four loss in Round 25 to finish the 2021 season in seventh spot.
Newcastle can now look forward to a huge elimination final against the Parramatta Eels next weekend.
On a perfect afternoon in Brisbane, the Broncos started fast and had the opening try on the 6th minute mark.
Xavier Coates fumbled the ball back and Kobe Hetherington received the ball to score under the posts.
Brisbane would have their second soon after when Corey Oates made it to the line.
A shift to the left opened up some space and Oates burrowed his way over 14 minutes into the contest.
Herbie Farnworth converted to make it 12-0.
The Knights went close on a few occassions with Enari Tuala almost diving over but dropped the ball short of the line.
It wasn't until a brilliant cut-out pass from Kalyn Ponga brought the Knights points.
Ponga fired a long ball across the defensive line and hit Tuala on the chest, and the winger made no mistake this time around.
The Broncos would fire back with a try of their own before the break.
Tesi Niu put through a grubber and Farnworth grounded the ball in the in-goal.
Farnworth converted his try and put the score out to 18-4.
In a huge positive in the first half, Pasami Saulo made a triumphant return to the field after long injury lay-off suffered back in Round 8.
The Knights almost had a second when Tuala nearly scored a try early in the second half, however dropped the ball on the put down.
The Broncos would go up the other end and score their fourth of the afternoon.
Anthony Milford crossed over four minutes into the second half to extend the home side's lead.
The Broncos' Selwyn Cobbo would have the Broncos fifth scoring a long-range try of an intercept try with 30 minutes to play.
The Broncos continued their scoring spree with Niu notching a double on the 60th minute mark.
Jack Johns pegged one back for the Knights scoring his first try in the NRL and bridged the gap to 18 points.
The Knights would have another try in quick succession when Brodie Jones made a break and found Chris Randall.
The hooker scored under the posts to make it 34-22 with 10 to play.
The Broncos would hold on for their victory with Anthony Milford kicking a late field goal.
Newcastle will shake off the loss and shift their focus to finals week one.
