The Warriors guaranteed themselves a place in the NRL finals with a 36-4 destruction of Brisbane at Mt Smart Stadium on Friday night.

The game was effectively over in the first half, with the home side running in five unanswered tries to lead 24-0 at the break.

A sloppy Broncos outfit missed 19 tackles in the opening half alone and were made to pay, with their only points coming through a Jharal Yow Yeh try in the 77th minute.

Backrower Lewis Brown and fullback Lance Hohaia scored two tries apiece for a Warriors outfit missing injured workhorse Micheal Luck.

"I didn't really anticipate the score to be that big," a delighted Warriors coach Ivan Cleary said.

"I certainly sensed during the week that the boys were up for a big one.

"Once we got into the game and could build a bit of pressure then the points came.

"That's exactly what you try to do and we were able to do that consistently for the last 20 minutes of that first half.

"It was good to watch, good fun, it's good to be able to relax at the end of a game for once."

Warriors centre Jerome Ropati was a late inclusion for the home side, recovering from a groin injury to replace Joel Moon, but there was no surprise recall for Darren Lockyer despite some speculation before the match.

Manu Vatuvei set the New Zealand side on course for victory with a try in the 13th minute when he claimed a Brett Seymour bomb.

Brown made the most of some abject Broncos defending to score in the 22nd minute before finishing a team move four minutes later to secure his double.

Skipper Simon Mannering got in on the act, scoring the Warriors' fourth try, and it was the only poor goal kicking from James Maloney - landing one from four conversions - that was keeping the Broncos in with a slim chance.

But those hopes completely evaporated when Hohaia grabbed two tries, one either side of the break.

Ben Matulino scored the Warriors' final try in the 59th before Yow Yeh saved the Broncos from being kept scoreless.

The Warriors face Parramatta next week sound in the knowledge they will be playing finals football while Brisbane host Canberra with only a slim hope of sneaking into the eight.

Broncos coach Ivan Henjak admitted his side had simply been outplayed.

"That first half we just had no ball there or field position," he said.

"Some of the finishes to our sets weren't great either, the Warriors completed their sets really well and put together some good passages of play.

"They played very good, they were full of energy and really went about their work with a real professionalism. We were totally outplayed."

"We've just got to regroup, keep ourselves positive and give it a real good crack next week."

"Our sticking together and having some pride in our jersey, all those things are going to come into play next week.

"We're going to find out a lot of things about ourselves."

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