Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

What do you give a seventy something year old, for his birthday - a ticket to the Broncos verses Warriors NRL premiership match at Suncorp stadium in Brisbane last Sunday afternoon.

In tandem with son number one and two grand daughters, the Warriors fans set out on the fifty minute journey down the Bruce highway, to catch a suburban Brisbane train to the footie.

The supposed easy drive turned into a sixty kilometre, two and a half hour traffic nightmare, with the main carriageway to Queensland's capital city choked with school holiday traffic returning home.

Three and a half hours after leaving Caloundra, the four Warriors fans finally made it into Suncorp Stadium, ten minutes from half time.

The good news was that the New Zealand representatives had a 6 nil lead. Two further touchdowns in front of the new arrivals at Suncorp, took the Warriors to 16 nil at half time break, to put the travel frustrations well and truly behind the Warriors fans.

The encounter was a must win for both teams, with the playoffs looming, as both the Suncorp combatants were just inside the top eight with 22 points apiece.

Continued second half pressure from the Warriors saw them run in two further second spell tries, with the New Zealand boys taking a emphatic 26-6 victory, back to Mt Smart.

Shaun Johnson had another terrific game at pivot, controlling the attacks on the Broncos line, while giant centre Solomone Kata was in devastating attacking form being rewarded with two tries.

Monday's Courier Mail back page headline of SUNDAY ROAST summed up Sunday's Suncorp action, perfectly. Broncos coach Wayne Bennett conceded that his team played poorly stating " they outplayed us and out-enthused us".

However, Warriors fans know the saying "never count your chickens until they hatch", well, as the team head for the playoffs, with consistency still the teams real problem in spite of Sunday's authoritative victory.

No other team in the NRL receives the home crowd support as the Broncos, with 37,493 rugby league fans packing into Suncorp Stadium on Sunday.

The Brisbane league headquarters are like Eden Park on steroids. The fully covered stands sweep around the former Lang Park perimeter with a capacity of over fifty thousand patrons.

Just a hop step and a jump from the CBD, game day brings Broncos fans into town in their thousands.

However, last Sunday, a multitude of Warriors supporters clad in their teams kit gave the home team fans a lesson in team support.

Everywhere one looked, passionate Warriors fans were extremely vocal in support of "our" team - it was a great day to be a Warriors fan.

The Australian media race to top the rating provides some interesting reading and listening.

In the last couple of days two, junior sports stories highlighted the two spectrums of media style.

Calls for junior rugby league grades to be weight restricted rather than strict age group divisions were a good call - while there has been debate in recent days that anyone taking photos or videos of junior sport should have to obtain media accreditation.