Brothers remained undefeated in Brisbane's Intech Open Men's Division 1 competition with a pulsating 24-20 win over Bulimba Bulldogs at Totally Workwear Stadium at the weekend.
In the final fixture match of the season, the Brethren escaped with the two points right at the death, after a brave Bulldogs led for 68 of the 70 minutes played.
With Bulimba arguably the better of the two sides, it was left to former Ipswich Jets player and current Brothers fullback Michael Purcell to get the Leprechauns out of jail with two late solo tries.
It took only two minutes of play for the Bulldogs to stamp their authority in the game courtesy of second rower Elijah Harro.
A superb pass from Isaiah Panauvu found Harro lurking out wide and he made no mistake crashing in to score.
Not three minutes later, Brothers workaholic hooker Wade Potter found an opening from dummy half and lunged over to get the scores level pegging at 6-6 after the successful conversion was slotted from in front of the sticks.
Powerful Bulldog Troy McDowall snatched the lead back to 10-6, after a quick change of angle by halfback Dean Shepperd.
The ball was quickly distributed out to McDowall who used his size and strength to crash over with only two minutes of play left in the first half.
Brothers, however, found themselves down to 12 men for the start of the second half, with one player sent to the bin for back chat, with only seconds remaining on the clock.
In an explosive opening few minutes, the start of the second half appeared to belong to the Bulldogs.
Sensational knocks by Bulldogs Glen Mola, Harro and Hosea Tabua were some of the home sides heroes on a losing side, but the entire Bulldogs side had played some remarkable football throughout the entirety of the game.
In the 57th Minute, McDowall scored his second try of the afternoon for the Bulldogs, using his brute strength to overpower the Brothers defence to barge his way over in the corner.
With the Brethren still down to 12 men, the Bulldogs capitalized with the overlap.
Bulimba’s Harro also scored his second for the afternoon after he broke free of some flimsy Brothers defence and charged his way to the line slicing over out wide.
A Superb sideline conversion by Panauve, amazingly saw the Bulldogs in the lead 14 points clear at 20-6.
The game was played from end-to-end and after a fumble at the kick-off from the restart by the Bulldogs, Brothers fullback Purcell would make the home side pay dearly.
The enigmatic custodian slithered his way through the smallest of gaps to slide in and score.
A dropped ball by the Bulldogs saw Brothers prop Sam Bandeira pick up the loose carry and gallop his way to the line to score unopposed to kickstart start the late comeback.
With both sides out on their feet after putting on a masterclass for the small but vocal crowd, the game went right down to the wire.
With only two minutes left on the clock, Purcell would show why he has been the marquee player all season, scoring a dazzling solo try, to seal the victory for Brothers in what was one of the games of the season.
