The New Zealand Warriors turned the NRL premiership race on its head and sent Manly into title favouritism with a last-gasp, 18-15 win over Melbourne on Sunday.
Down 15-14 with two minutes to go, the Warriors conjured a scintillating try to five-eighth Michael Witt to snatch victory from the reigning premiers and earn a home semifinal against the Sydney Roosters next Friday.
The Roosters, who lost 24-16 to Brisbane on Friday night, had been bracing for a somewhat fortuitous home final Cronulla before the Warriors' late try suddenly had them scrambling for plane tickets to Auckland.
The win hands a massive advantage to the Warriors, who are 9-3 at Mt Smart Stadium this year, although they went down 38-12 at home to the Roosters in round 11.
Melbourne now face a daunting assignment against in-form Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday in order to keep alive their dream of being the first club to win back-to-back premierships since the Broncos in 1992-93.
Should they beat the Broncos, the Storm would then need to face a fresh Cronulla, who now have next weekend off. Manly also earned a break and have arguably the easier run to the grand final, needing to beat either the Warriors or Roosters in two weeks' time.
Major upset
The Warriors' win marked the first time in 10 years of the McIntyre finals system that the eighth-placed team had upstaged the minor premiers.
It also sent Canberra, who went down 36-10 to the Sharks last night, crashing out of the title race, along with St George Illawarra, who were thrashed 38-6 by Manly on Saturday night.
The Warriors have now won nine of their last 11 games and coach Ivan Cleary felt higher forces were at play today to reward that run. "Sometimes you get those wins at the death. It's a bit of fate," he said.
Fate was also on the minds of Canberra's players as they watched in disbelief as mercurial Warriors winger Manu Vatuvei laid on a superb offload for Witt in the 78th minute to send the Raiders packing.
The Dragons said goodbye to the Nathan Brown era at Brookvale Oval, where the Sea Eagles romped in for seven tries.
France-bound duo Mark Gasnier and Jason Ryles also played their last games for the red and whites as the club prepares for the arrival of supercoach Wayne Bennett next season.
