For the first 10 rounds of the season, Wests Tigers most definitely looked like a serious semi finals contender.
But for the next 11 rounds, thanks to a combination of injuries and suspensions – but mostly the messy departure of Lachlan Galvin – the wheels came off amid talk of a fourth wooden spoon.
Sunday’s epic 28-14 victory over the Bulldogs changed everything for the Tigers.
There’s a lot to unpack from the game, and the result, so let’s start with the elephant in the room: Galvin playing in the number seven jumper of the Bulldogs.
Head coach Benji Marshall has denied his team’s incredible performance had anything to do or was motivated by revenge for the destabilisation the teenager caused when he demanded an immediate release from his contract.
But of course it was at least part of the motivation, whether the group discussed it or not.
Players are human, after all, so revenge, yes, tick that box.
Wooden spoon talk gone, tick another box.
In fact, now we’re talking about the Tigers sneaking into the finals.
The win – their eighth – has catapulted them to 12th on the ladder, just six points out of the top eight.
Tigers get two points from the bye this coming round (23) then have four more matches, so they could finish on 30 points.
Nobody knows where exactly the finals cutoff will land this year, but it could be anywhere between 28 and 32, so yes, they are a chance.
But that’s on the condition they repeat the performance against the Bulldogs in all their remaining games.
Back to the fallout from the match, and two specific issues.
One was the lack of balance from the referee in dealing with high shots, with the Wests Tigers player Alex Seyfarth copping a sin bin and now facing three weeks on the sidelines.
But when Bulldogs centre Stephen Crichton was called out for a head shot, he was merely put on report – no sin bin there. Nor will he be suspended.
The other was the so called rude hand gesture from some emotional Tigers players towards Bulldogs fans – what a beat up – I hope the club fights any sanctions.
Finally, it was great to see something good happen to Benji Marshall. This has been a tough season for the club great, but he has handled it with aplomb.
We know, he knows, that he’s not the greatest coach in the world right now.
But if we learned something from Sunday’s win over the Dogs, it’s that Benji the coach is on his way.