The Raiders very nearly upset one of the NRL's premiership favourites in a thrilling end-to-end NRL encounter, but just couldn't quite get it done in Jack Wighton and Jarrod Croker's last regular season home game.
It was nearly the perfect Bruce send-off for retiring centre Croker, and Redfern-bound Wighton in front of 19,400 fans.
Locked at 16-16 after the first 40 minutes the Raiders got a sniff of an upset, but a second-half head knock to Josh Papali'i and a Jordan Rapana sin bin allowed Brisbane to race away to a 29-18 victory.