Test halves Johnathan Thurston and Darren Lockyer both collected injuries as the Broncos downed the Cowboys 34-26 in a fiery derby in front of a crowd of 20,148 at Dairy Farmers Stadium on Friday night.

Cowboys star Thurston hobbled off midway through the first half with a right ankle ligament strain.

Brisbane's Lockyer retired clutching his ribs after 60 minutes in the six-tries-to-four victory.

To cap another intense clash between the Queensland rivals three players were sin-binned and another placed on report in the first half in two incidents certain to be looked at by the match review committee.

Bronco Josh McGuire was referred for a high shot on Anthony Watts, but it was the incident that erupted minutes later that will have the Cowboys sweating over possible suspensions.

Maguire was penalised for working Cowboys centre Ty Williams in a tackle, prompting hooker Anthony Watts to rush in as third man in.

While he wrestled with the forward, Cowboy James Tamou joined in and landed a heavy blow to the side of his head.

That in turn prompted Broncos Sam Thaiday to fly in and throw a flurry of punches at the Kiwi prop.

All three were sinbinned and Tamou, in particular, is likely to attract the interest of the match review committee for his cheap shot on Maguire.

With two players in the bin and trailing 14-8, the Cowboys were unable to hold their line after the flare-up and Israel Folau scored his second try of the night with a Darren Lockyer special minutes later opening up a 24-8 halftime advantage.

A solid effort from Willie Mason to draw the defence and offload the ball allowed the home team to spread the ball early in the second half and put Scott Bolton over in the left corner, Ashley Graham's sideline conversion putting them back in the game at 24-14.

But the Broncos consolidated their spot in the NRL top eight as Jharal Yow Yeh and man-of-the-match Matt Gillett bagged four-pointers, the second of the night for Gillett.

Cowboys second-rower Leeson Ah Mau managed to take something out of the game, scoring his maiden try in first grade in the dying minutes.

Dane Hogan also scored a consolation try in the final minute.

The win has Brisbane poised to make a stunning 20th straight finals appearance following their dramatic turnaround from a woeful two from eight start to the season.

The Cowboys are still fighting to avoid finishing last of the competing teams.

Lockyer was cleared of any serious rib injury and was more concerned about the well-being of his Queensland and Test teammate following the game than his own.

"Is he OK?," he asked the media contingent about Thurston.

"(My injury) was just a precautionary thing."

Lockyer said he thought the sin-binnings were justified but should be left at that.

"I haven't seen all of the replay but Josh Maguire got sort of hit from behind there," he said.

``He (Tamou) was one of the guys sent to the bin so I think it was justified that if our guy was going to go for 10 then at least one theirs had to go.

"Maybe the 10 minutes was sufficient in the context of the game."

But Henry fears he may lose both Thurston and Tamou next week through injury and suspension.

"JT would be highly unlikely I'd say to play for a few weeks," Henry said.

"His ankle has swollen up, we hope it's a medial ligament but he heard a bit of a snap there.

"I think (Tamou) has come in and retaliated there so I would probably expect a charge out of that."

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