Broncos 50 Knights 6
Statistics can be manipulated to reveal just about anything but one statistic proved quite telling as the Knights' season ended last night.
A trawl through the history books uncovered that Newcastle have won only 17 per cent of games without Danny Buderus (they win 57
per cent with him on the park).
And while the absence of the world's best hooker through suspension, and to a lesser degree workaholic second-rower Steve Simpson through injury, left a huge hole no one would have realised just quite how much.
Buderus gives his side great go-forward as well as a cool head under pressure and how Buderus will be ruing one moment of madness when he upended Manly's Michael Robertson last weekend. There's not much anyone can do from the sidelines.
Halfback Andrew Johns did as much as he could to carry his side, but Newcastle simply coughed up too much possession and put themselves under too much pressure against a side desperate to break a run of seven-straight defeats in the playoffs.
The Broncos took full advantage and steamrolled their way into a showdown with the Bulldogs on Friday night.
The game was effectively over by halftime, as the Broncos headed to the sheds 24-0 ahead, and they were relentless as they added another four tries in the second spell. The form slump that threatened to derail their season six weeks ago is a distant memory and the confidence and swagger is back.
After a tight opening 10 minutes, when Johns missed a penalty from in front of the posts, the Broncos started to assert their dominance on the back of a barnstorming display by prop Petero Civoniceva and a typically assured performance by Darren Lockyer.
After losing the ball twice inside their own half, it seemed only a matter of time before the Knights cracked. That crack, though, became a gaping hole.
David Stagg strolled in at the corner in the 16th minute thanks to Justin Hodges, Brent Tate followed three minutes later when he sliced through some weak Knights defence and Hodges latched onto a Darren Lockyer grubber when Knights winger Brian Carney should have dealt with it.
But the killer blow came on the stroke of halftime when Karmichael Hunt raced in under the black dot after an incisive break from hooker Shaun Berrigan.
Their cause became more hopeless when Dane Carlaw was the beneficiary of another Berrigan offload and crossed seven minutes after the restart.
Civoniceva deservedly got his name on the scoresheet soon after and then Lockyer rewrote the history books when he waltzed over and in the 55th minute, eclipsing Micheal De Vere as the Broncos' highest points scorer.
Darius Boyd continued the procession three minutes later and at that stage, as the scoreboard attendant might have suffered fatigue, even linesmen might have started feeling sorry for the lippy Johns. Along the way, the Broncos established a new NRL record for a winning margin in the semifinals and could even afford to substitue Lockyer with more than 15 minutes remaining.
Broncos coach Wayne Bennett had dared Johns to carry his side - he might not be quite so provocative against a side that boasts the talents of Sonny Bill Williams, Willie Mason, Brent Sherwin.
Broncos 50 (D. Stagg, B. Tate, J. Hodges, K. Hunt, D. Carlaw, P. Civoniceva, D Lockyer, D. Boyd tries; C. Parker 8, D. Lockyer gls)
Knights 6 (K. Gidley try, A. Johns goal).
HT: 24-0.
Broncos 50 Knights 6
Statistics can be manipulated to reveal just about anything but one statistic proved quite telling as the Knights' season ended last night.
A trawl through the history books uncovered that Newcastle have won only 17 per cent of games without Danny Buderus (they win 57
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