After conceding five tries to three, Thunder finally ran out of chances with coach Josh Cale left scratching his head about how to stop the alarming slide.

Thunder have the bye this weekend before taking on Tumut, Cootamundra, Young and Kangaroos in the run home.

Cale said he wasn’t even thinking about finals.

“We made simple errors again and didn’t start fast enough,” Cale said.

“I thought we were lucky to only be down 12-10 at half-time.

“I thought that flattered us.

“In the second-half, we didn’t have enough punch and we just weren’t strong enough on our defensive line.

“It’s two weeks in a row we have given opposition teams 30 points and that’s not good enough.

"We were pretty ordinary and we have been for the last month really.”

Brothers opened the scoring through Will Merritt at the five-minute-mark and, when Liam Carey followed up 19 minutes later, Thunder were staring down the barrel.

But the visitors gave themselves some hope when Levi Freeman and Etu Uaisele crossed before the break to cut the deficit to two points.

The revival was short-lived with Brothers scoring through Harold Kirby and Brayden Sharrock to take an unassailable 24-10 lead.

Freeman scored again before Zac Wilson crossed for the sealer for Brothers with five minutes left on the clock.

“At stages we looked OK, but then we went away from it,” Cale said.

“We just didn’t execute.

“Brothers played smarter than us.

“We have a long time to think about it with the bye this weekend and hopefully we will come back a better side.

"We are behind the eight ball for sure but we are working hard at training, we just aren't getting the results yet.”

The damaging Peter Little was dangerous at five-eighth for Brothers while Merritt also posed plenty of problems.

Kirby’s kicking also proved decisive with the winger landing five goals.

Thunder rallied through Freeman, Joe Silafau and Ben Taylor but the support cast was limited.

Lachie Hampton finished with two goals in his return match from injury.

Brothers are sitting in fifth spot on the ladder and meet Tumut, Cootamundra, Young, Kangaroos and Southcity in their final five matches.

Young proved too strong for Junee, winning 28-12.

Tumut hammered Temora 44-6.

Tumbarumba blitzed Cootamundra 48-18 in the battle for the wooden spoon.

Kane Hammond was the matchwinner for the Greens with three tries and six goals.