The Warriors' fall from second to fourth is the major change to the National Rugby League competition table after the latest round of matches.
The Bulldogs kept their three-point gap at the top but the Warriors' 36-26 loss to Cronulla, their first in Australia this year, let Newcastle and Brisbane leapfrog them.
The Broncos beat St George Illawarra 34-22 at ANZ Stadium in a see-sawing match that turned with an opposition error midway through the second half.
Winger Shane Laloata dropped the ball in his own in-goal to allow Brisbane halfback Allan Langer to score and give his side the lead and the momentum.
The Broncos added two more tries to open out the margin.
The Sydney Roosters consolidated fifth position and closed to within three points of the Warriors with a comfortable 36-6 win over Canberra.
Sydney fullback Brett Mullins scored two tries against his old club and also had a hand in the first try of centre Shannon Hegarty's hat-trick.
The Bulldogs, with powerhouse prop Willie Mason again prominent, eased to a 42-22 home success over the Northern Eagles.
Mason got one of his side's seven tries as the competition leaders made it 13 wins in a row.
New Zealanders Nigel Vagana and Paul Rauhihi also crossed for the Bulldogs. It was Vagana's 15th of the season, keeping him top of the NRL try-scoring list.
Melbourne downed an error-prone Wests Tigers 26-20 at Olympic Park.
"We came away with the win, but we got a bit soft there in the end," Melbourne's New Zealand skipper, Stephen Kearney, said.
Souths celebrated the first anniversary of their readmission to the NRL by coming from behind to beat fellow strugglers Penrith 23-16 and break a six-match losing streak.
Meanwhile, Newcastle's 24-18 win over Parramatta on Friday night remained a major talking point, after referee Bill Harrigan's decision to use the sin bin four times against the Eels.
At one stage, the visitors had just 10 men on the field as Harrigan sent three of their players to the sideline - centre Michael Buettner twice - for repeated holding down in the play-the-ball.
Parramatta chief executive Denis Fitzgerald suggested that the NRL should put the competition's top referee through an anger management course.
"He seemed very angry and prickly out there," Fitzgerald said, adding that the Eels had not had one player sinbinned before this weekend.
Former Manly coach Bob Fulton, who once said he would not mind if a cement truck ran over Harrigan, described the refereeing as disgraceful.
But Harrigan said neither temperament nor personalities had anything to do with his decisions.
"If Parramatta had adhered to the warnings, we wouldn't be talking about this now," he said.
Newcastle coach Michael Hagan defended Harrigan and accused the Eels of being persistent infringers, particularly on their way to winning the minor premiership last year.
- NZPA
Rugby League: Loss tips Warriors down to fourth
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.