Penrith Panthers recovered from a shaky start to comfortably see off Brisbane Broncos 25-12 for a 12th straight victory to move a step closer to being crowned NRL minor premiers.

The Broncos began life without head coach Anthony Seibold with a 58-12 loss against Sydney Roosters last week but made a promising start to Thursday's clash at Suncorp Stadium.

Kotoni Staggs was played through a gap to the outside of Stephen Crichton by Darius Boyd and stormed over for a ninth-minute try.

But the Panthers soon found their stride and were on level terms with 25 minutes played thanks to Josh Mansour, who profited from Jarome Luai's great work.

Nathan Cleary put the visitors in front with a penalty and then placed a perfect kick behind for Kurt Capewell to catch and ground just before half-time.

The Broncos, unbeaten since June, flexed their muscles a little more in the second half and further extended their lead when Luai pounced on another Cleary kick.

Jordan Riki charged up the field and around the outside of Dylan Edwards to reduce the arrears, but Brian To'o responded almost instantly by scrambling over in the corner at the opposite end.

The impressive Cleary sent over a drop goal late on to add further gloss to the scoreline as the leaders moved five points clear of Melbourne Storm, who face South Sydney Rabbitohs on Friday.