NZ Warriors' horror NRL season has continued, with their seventh straight loss, this time falling 40-6 at the hands of the premiership leaders Penrith Panthers at Redcliffe.
With the Warriors playing their last game at their home-away-from-home, they couldn't send the Redcliffe faithful off in style with a farewell victory.
Interim coach Stacey Jones made the bold move to hand teenager Ronald Volkman his NRL debut in the halves and although he showed promise with his distribution, that wasn't enough to contain a clinical Panthers side.
The league leaders never got out of second gear, but still ran in seven tries to the Warriors' one to claim their 14th victory of the season.
The Warriors started the contest strongly, but timid and weak defence was the story of the evening, just like it's been all season.
New NZ Kiwis prop Moses Leota opened the scoring after 15 minutes, when he ran onto a short ball from Apisai Koroisau, after the hooker darted out of dummy-half.
Just eight minutes later, the Panthers grabbed their second, when Nathan Cleary put Dylan Edwards into an alarming hole with an inside pass to see the fullback canter over untouched.
The Panthers finished the first half in style, with Taylan May producing brilliant footwork to beat Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, before finishing acrobatically in the corner to give his side an 18-0 lead at the break.
The Warriors were always up against it in the second half, with the Panthers winning their last 48 matches, when leading at the break.
The Panthers didn't take long to get into gear in the second half, with Brain To'o finishing a move straight off the training ground in the 48th minute.
The defending champions started to get sloppy, only completing at 73 percent (28/38) for the contest, and gave away eight penalties to produce a scrappy second-half display.
Still, they continued to dominate, as they marched upfield with alarming ease, as eight of their 17 players ran for more than 100 metres.
Panthers skipper Isaah Yeo claimed his side's fifth try of the evening, when he ran onto a Koroisau short ball and beat a weak Chanel Harris-Tavita tackle for 28-0.
Just three minutes later, Liam Martin burrowed his way over, after more timid Warriors defence.
The Auckland side weren't about to let the Panthers keep them scoreless, as Josh Curran burst onto a short ball from Reece Walsh - who was the Warriors' best on the night - to grab the home side's only try just three minutes from fulltime.
But the Panthers had the final say, capping off a professional display, when May grabbed his second of the night, after Jarome Luai was able to break tackles at ease and run across field to set the winger up in the corner.
The Warriors remain 14th on the ladder, but only one win off the bottom, while the Panthers remain at the top of the table, but there is a glimmer of hope for the Warriors, as their next match will be back in New Zealand against the Wests Tigers on July 3 - their first real home encounter on this side of the Tasman in 1038 days.
Panthers 40 (Leota, Edwards, May 2, To'o, Yeo, Martin tries; Cleary 5 conversions, Crichton conversion) Warriors 6 (Curran try; Walsh conversion)
