Lockyer down and Broncos out
by Chris Cox
Sunday May 02, 2004

Queensland's State of Origin hopes hang in the balance after Maroons' skipper Darren Lockyer suffered a rib injury in the first half of Brisbane's 25-18 loss to Canterbury at a sparsely populated Telstra Stadium.  Lockyer left the field with the Broncos down 12-0 30 minutes into the game and did not return.

However, his teammates stood tall, led by captain Gorden Tallis, inspiring an 18-point comeback to lead 18-12 with just on 10 minutes remaining.

But the Bulldogs weren't to be denied, back rower Andrew Ryan crashing over with 9 minutes remaining, Hazem El Masri converted to level the scores. Brent Sherwin landed the second of his field goal attempts with three minutes left and Willie Mason scored a soft try to extend the margin to seven points, which probably didn't reflect the closeness of the game.

Lockyer cut a forlorn figure on the sideline during that tense second half, and he complained to Channel 9's Andrew Voss that he struggled for breath, indicating something more serious than rib cartilage damage.

Tallis wasn't without his own problems, suffering an aggravation to his right knee injury early in the first half. However, he didn't let it slow him down, playing a man of the match hand for the entire 80 minutes.  His second half try in which he bumped off four Canterbury defenders, including Willie Mason, was the Raging Bull at his absolute best.  Sadly it wasn't enough to inspire his team to hold out the determined Bulldogs.

The real tragedy of the game was that only 17104 fans witnessed the game.  The Bulldogs have a serious image issue they need to overcome after crowd and off field indiscretions in the past few months. Such a high quality clash between the two top teams deserved double the fans that turned out, perhaps kept down by some transport system problems in Sydney.