Brisbane coach Anthony Seibold hailed his baby Broncos' dramatic 24-22 NRL win over Cronulla as the best and bravest he's been involved with.
Coming off three-straight losses, Brisbane overcame a whirlwind hat-trick of tries to the Sharks' Josh Morris to overturn a 22-12 deficit on Sunday afternoon at PointsBet Stadium.
Five-eighth Jake Turpin swooped on a great Tevita Pangai offload to level the scores with just over five minutes left and Kotoni Staggs kicked the conversion.
The Sharks scored five tries to four but Chad Townsend missed four kicks at goal, while Staggs nailed all of his conversion attempts.
The Broncos fielded four debutants and 10 of their players had notched less than 13 first-grade games.
And, they lost halfback Sean Sullivan at halftime to a hamstring injury, with hooker Andrew McCullough moving to that position for the first time in 11 seasons, and centre Gehamat Shibasaki to a fractured finger.
"Its the bravest win I've been involved in with any sort of team,'" Seibold said. "We were down to the bare bones tonight. It's the best win, let's be honest, with Origin and all that sort of stuff - so proud of the guys."
Cronulla lost captain Paul Gallen (glute/hamstring) and back Matt Moylan (hamstring tightness) during the game.
"You look at how many the Broncs out, so I'm not here to make excuses about our personnel," Sharks coach John Morris said.
Morris pointed out Cronulla had 11 players with more than 100 games' experience and the Sharks' backline alone had played 700 more matches than their Brisbane counterparts.
He replaced five-eighth Shaun Johnson with four minutes left, but denied he had hooked the New Zealand international, who rarely ran the ball, and said he needed another goalkicker.
"I don't think he had a bad game, Shaun," Morris said. The Sharks have lost three in a row, scoring more tries in each game, but let down by bad kicking.
Morris bagged his first hat-trick since his Bulldogs days in 2012, notching all three in a 10-minute spell, as the Sharks poured on 14 unanswered points in the third quarter to lead 22-12 after trailing 12-8 at halftime.
But Payne Haas crashed over for a try on the hour and the injury-hit Sharks couldn't regain the momentum.
Sharks replacement Kyle Flanagan, who kicked their only goal, was reported for kneeing Broncos prop Matt Lodge, with the home team up by 10 at the time.
Lodge might also attract scrutiny after lashing out with his leg and making contact with Flanagan.
The early buzz in the game was generated by 18-year-old Broncos winger and debutant Xavier Coates, who flew above Morris to score a spectacular opening try of the game.
He almost had another later in the half after another aerial duel with Morris, but was ruled to have knocked on.