Despite Canberra's second-half surge, the Broncos secured a thrilling 40-36 victory at Suncorp Stadium.

Brisbane five-eighth Gerard Beale pounced on a Raiders mistake with only seconds left in the match to score the winning try.

The four-point loss puts a massive dent in Canberra's premiership hopes and ended its hopes of finishing the regular season in the top four.

The Raiders will now have to mount their charge to the title from sixth place.

Coach David Hamilton was confident his side could bounce back in the opening week of the finals next weekend.

But he said the Raiders couldn't afford to keep playing ''dumb footy''.

''It's a whole new competition when finals begin,'' Hamilton said.

''We played a bit of dumb footy at times, I'm glad to see they're hurting badly because it's important to make sure they feel that now.

''Sometimes it's trying too hard we were scrambling big time and the work ethic is there.

''We've just been giving too much possession away the last couple of weeks and we paid the ultimate price for it.

''Now we've got sixth position and we've just got to deal with it.''

A Raiders win would have lifted them to third spot.

Depending on results today and tomorrow, they will play either the Canterbury Bulldogs, North Queensland Cowboys or Sydney Roosters in their opening finals match.

But they were left lamenting missed opportunities in Brisbane.

For more on this story, see the print edition of today's Canberra Times