Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett says the NRL's controversial new golden point rule puts lives at risk and declared he'd rather have lost to Penrith than send his players out for extra time.

Bennett, speaking after his side hung on grimly to beat the Panthers 24-20 at Penrith Stadium on Sunday, said players would have been in danger from heat exhaustion if they'd been required to continue for an extra ten minutes.

"You name me one player out there at the end of that time who had another ten minutes of decent football left in him?" Bennett said.

"That heat we played in ... go into that change room and see how exhausted they are and we're going to ask them to play another ten minutes.

"If they were going to score right at the end I'd rather see them kick the two points and win the game to be honest with you."

Bennett said the health of forwards like prop Shane Webcke, who was playing his first match of the year after recovering from a calf injury, would be put at risk by playing extra time.

"They're just exhausted in that change room. They're huge men at work and they've just lost five or six kgs in the last 80 minutes out there and we want to go another ten (minutes).

"I keep asking 'what was wrong with the draw?' In April, May or June - if somebody gets killed, it's possible."

The Broncos joined Melbourne and Newcastle as winners despite almost letting a 24-8 lead slip away and losing captain Gorden Tallis to the sin-bin for fighting.

Melbourne produced one of the shocks of the round with a stunning fightback against Cronulla at Toyota Park.

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