Who can stop the Brisbane Broncos in 2016?

South Sydney are the latest to try, and fail, coming up short in a heated Friday night scrap that will have ramifications for both clubs.

The Rabbitohs closed out their nightmarish Queensland swing with a 30-8 loss to Brisbane, just a week after conceding 44 points when they visited Townsville.

Needing an upset to breathe life into their rapidly deflating season, the Rabbitohs trailed 14-0 at half-time, found some desperation to get within six points before being blown out late by a Brisbane side that continues to sweep all before them in season 2016.

If it wasn't for Greg Inglis scoring in the second half, the Broncos would have been the first team since Eastern Suburbs in 1919 to go three consecutive games without conceding a point. Instead, they had to make do with 223 minutes of almost flawless football.

With 40,000 fans at Suncorp Stadium to see Corey Parker play game 331, taking him past Nathan Hindmarsh as the game's most-capped forward, the match delivered drama and fire despite the lop-sided result.

Souths may have lost centre Hymel Hunt for the season with a pectoral injury, while Brisbane hooker Andrew McCullough will have scans on a knee injury that saw him helped from the field in the first half.

And Brisbane ended the night with two men on report. Joe Ofahengaue went in the book for a high tackle on Paul Carter that looked innocent enough, while Adam Blair could be in more hot water for his late contact on Adam Reynolds, who left the field clutching his jaw but would eventually return.

With Sam Burgess going on a one-man crusade to turn up the burners in the second half, the match almost degenerated into a lingering series of push-and-shoves before Brisbane ended the conversation with a flurry of late points.

It was the kind of night when Souths needed every little thing to go right. The 2014 premiers had been under immense pressure in the lead-up and needed something to get their suddenly spacious bandwagon moving. Vision of Hunt sobbing his eyes out in the dressing room, likely aware his season was over, didn't tick that box.

By that point, Corey Oates had already been denied a try in the corner due to an obstruction on Reynolds and Brisbane were starting to impose their quality on the contest, with first blood a Parker penalty.

The visitors were counting the minutes until the half-time break and could have been clock-watching when Kodi Nikorima (33rd minute) scooted over from a simple scrum ploy. Three minutes later, Ben Hunt improvised beautifully in a play that went wrong and it was 14-0.

Just as Brisbane could have been forgiven for starting to look at the record books, Inglis popped the bubble as he fell over the line. Inglis tried hard in a losing side and can't shoulder the blame for this defeat.

With the game heating up, mostly thanks to Burgess, who seemed intent on cleaning up anything in his path, or on the ground in the case of the prone Ofahengaue, Souths edged their way to 14-8 and seemed in with a chance of an upset.

That was snuffed out by Oates, who finally got his try and did so in spectacular fashion, seemingly defying gravity to score in the left corner in what must be the put-down of the season.

Late tries to Jordan Kahu and a jubilant Parker turned it into another Broncos drubbing.

The gold and maroon train continues to steam towards October.