Veteran coach John Lang warned South Sydney would not put up the white flag should superstar centre Greg Inglis be ruled out of Friday night's must-win clash with Newcastle, which should decide the last team into the NRL final eight.

Inglis, who appeared to twist his left ankle in trying to break a tackle, hobbled off in pain in the 55th minute of Brisbane's 22-10 win over Souths at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday.

He was on crutches after the match and is in grave doubt for the clash with the Knights who opened the finals door on Saturday with a surprise loss to Canterbury.

Inglis wouldn't talk after the game, but Lang didn't paint a pretty picture when quizzed on his chances of having his gun player for a game which will decide the club's finals fate.

"It doesn't look great to be perfectly honest," said Lang.

"He'll have x-rays tomorrow (Monday) and we'll see what happens from there."

Brisbane took advantage of Inglis's absence in the next set when Ben Te'o muscled his way over for the only try of the second half.

"Obviously we don't want to lose him but if he's not there, we certainly won't be putting up the white flag."

The task is simple for Souths; beat Newcastle and hope the Bulldogs don't put a cricket score on Canberra and they're into the finals.

They'll have try-scoring machine Nathan Merritt (quad) and five-eighth John Sutton (hand) back to face a hostile Novocastrian crowd in a do-or-die battle.

Lang said had Souths' season been on the line against Brisbane, both Merritt and Sutton would have played.

"We would have taken a very big risk with them and if everything goes well during the week, they should be back on Friday night," he said.

The Broncos have already sewn up third spot on the ladder ahead of their sold out blockbuster with Manly on Sunday. It's Darren Lockyer's farewell to the fans day in his last home and away game for the club.

Manly however face a turbulent week following Friday night's spiteful fight, with all 34 players involved in the brawling clash with Melbourne being investigated.

Brisbane coach Anthony Griffin did not pull any punches after the unattractive win.

"Ugly," was his summary of a clash in which his side missed almost 50 tackles.

While Brisbane's defence kept Souths scoreless in the second half they didn't execute well or take their chances and were in Griffin's words "a level down" on what is needed.

"Both sides scrambled pretty well defensively and we were as bad as each other with the ball," he said.

Griffin was prepared to cop an off day given his players had negotiated a tough stretch against some top sides.

"We've been up for a while and apart from 25 minutes against Melbourne we've been going along pretty good," he said.

"We've been handling whatever's been thrown at us and while it was pretty ugly today, we didn't get scored on in the second half."

Lockyer said the players had succumbed to the warm conditions.

"We ran out of puff earlier than usual. There was a lot of guys cramping and there's a lot of guys in there (dressing room) pretty exhausted," he said.

Brisbane lock Corey Parker was outstanding again with 42 tackles and 199 metres gained.

He was well supported by fullback Josh Hoffman, the youngster carrying the football 216 metres and making several runs that turned defence into attack for Brisbane.

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