The Broncos have staved off a second-half comeback from the Eels to seal a 26-16 win — their seventh victory of the season — in wet and wild conditions in Darwin.

Halves Ezra Mam and Adam Reynolds were at the forefront of a Brisbane masterclass in the first half, but the former now faces a nervous wait after being placed on report and sin-binned for a hip drop tackle.

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Payne Haas got through a mountain of work as per usual but also could find himself in hot water for a similar tackle – despite controversially being spared the bin.

The Broncos got on the board first when an Eels error opened the door for Herbie Farnworth to score.

The Eels hit back five minutes later but Kevin Walters’ men responded in the best way possible — running in three tries in nine minutes.

Parramatta scored two tries in the second half to keep themselves in the game but it wasn’t enough to turn make up for a defensive horrorshow in the first 40.

The Eels are now 3-0 in the first eight rounds of the season and their woes were made even worse with J’maine Hopgood placed on report for a hip-drop tackle, a concussion for Bailey Simonsson and Campbell-Gillard struggling with a suspected groin injury.

HIP-DROP MANIA CAUSES CONTROVERSY

The Broncos’ attack was the story of the first half but it was a series of hip-drop tackles that was the talk of the second 40.

Both sides lost a player to the sin bin for a hip-drop tackle, although the Broncos were considered lucky not to have a second sent as well.

J’maine Hopgood was the first to get his marching orders for his tackle on Cory Paix in the 46th minute.

Ezra Mam was pinged next for a nasty-looking tackle on Matt Doorey.

Broncos coach Kevin Walters would have held his breath a couple of minutes later when Payne Haas looked to have performed a similar tackle on Reagan Campbell-Gillard, but the star prop was allowed to stay on the field — much to the surprise of Fox League’s commentary team.

“That’s exactly what Ezra Mam did moments ago, given what we have seen tonight… this should be 13 vs 11,” Warren Smith said.

“That is remarkable and honestly hard to believe given what we saw barely 60 seconds ago… Payne Haas has won the lottery,” Smith added after he stayed on the field.

‘DAMAGE DONE EARLY’ BY BRONCOS

The Broncos suffered a bit of a scare when the Eels began to mount a comeback in the second half, but it was the efforts of halves Adam Reynolds and Ezra Mam in the first 40 that got them over the line with a win.

Michael Ennis summed it up perfectly when he declared the “damage was done early” by the Broncos with Kevin Walters’ men scoring all 22 of their 26 points in the first 32 minutes.

Mam was a man on a mission early in the clash, coming up with some solid hits and important tackles.

He was rewarded for his efforts with a try – which came just two minutes after he set up his halves partner Adam Reynolds for one with a freakish no-look pass that Greg Alexander called “magic.”

“Sit back that’s why we love this game,” Steve ‘Blocker’ Roach said in commentary after Mam’s pass.

“Mam has exploded a couple of times in this game… He’s had a sensational start.”

Warren Smith added: “That is superstar from Mam and Reynolds.”

Mam was in the right place at the right time to ground the ball for the Broncos’ third of the night after Kotoni Staggs batted a grubber back into the field of play.

“Mam is everywhere,” Smith declared.

Mam proved to be just as potent in defence though when earlier in the game his kick-chase spooked Sean Russell into knocking on a Reynolds bomb. It was that play which opened the door for Herbie Farnworth to score Brisbane’s first try of the night.

Reynolds saw plenty of joy too, setting up two tries, getting two linebreak assists and wreaking havoc with his kicking game.

Mam and Reynolds wouldn’t have been able to work their magic though without the powerhouse efforts from their forward pack — particularly Haas and Pat Carrigan.

Haas notched up over 130 running metres just in the first half an hour of the game alone — something Roach said in commentary he’d “never seen before.” Haas finished the night with 200 running metres, five tackle busts and 17 tackles with zero misses.

Meanwhile, Carrigan finished with 120 running metres, three offloads and 35 tackles with zero misses.

EELS’ SOFT START PROVES COSTLY

The Broncos dominated the first half because the Eels let them. That’s what Brad Arthur believes with the coach declaring after the game that his side needs to “harden up at the start of games.”

It was a tight tussle for the first 20 minutes of the game only for the Eels to then let in three tries in the space of nine minutes.

They missed a total of 33 tackles compared to Brisbane’s 16 and 21 of those were in the first half alone.

Arthur said the second half was “all right” and acknowledged that his team is “fighting hard” but they’re “leaving too much to do in the second halves.”

“Our start wasn’t good enough, they just rolled straight through the middle. They got into good field position to have easy kicks with no pressure. So we’ve got to harden up at the start of games,” he said.

“I thought in the second half we played a bit more of a power game but that’s how we’ve got to start.

“We’re trying to play too cute and too pretty at the start of games. We’ve got to bite down a little bit and play tougher at the start of games.”

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TEAMS

Eels: 1. Clinton Gutherson 2. Maika Sivo 3. Viliami Penisini 21. Bailey Simonsson 4. Sean Russell 6. Dylan Brown 7. Mitchell Moses 8. Reagan Campbell-Gillard 9. Josh Hodgson 10. Junior Paulo 11. Shaun Lane 12. Bryce Cartwright 13. Ryan Matterson 14. J’maine Hopgood 15. Brendan Hands 16. Wiremu Greig 17. Matt Doorey 18. Jakob Arthur