It took Benji Marshall just 13 minutes to go back on his mid-week promise to shelve the 'fancy stuff' and adopt a more conservative approach - but the 20,168 fans on hand at Leichhardt Oval had no complaints.
The Kiwi international finished with a hat-trick of tries in the 26-14 victory over an undermanned Melbourne on Sunday afternoon, as Wests Tigers locked up an all-important top-four berth.
But while Marshall's overall performance was outstanding, his flick pass and subsequent try in the 13th minute of play was the highlight of a magical day at the Tigers' spiritual home.
The unpredictable playmaker spotted a gap and burst through the line before unleashing a trademark flick pass - a move banned by coach Tim Sheens - to Mitch Brown who turned the ball inside to Robert Lui who sent Marshall over in the corner.
"Yeah I can't even really remember what happened, just some people rushed out of the line and I just saw a gap so tried to take it on and just remember scoring in the corner," Marshall said when asked to relive his moment of brilliance after the game.
"And I was due for a try I haven't scored one for about four weeks."
"Things seem to go wrong when you plan that sort of stuff but when it's instinctive and you don't think about it seems to happen a bit better, and lucky Mitch Brown was ready for it and caught it with two hands."
"(Those plays) can go either way and thankfully it's been coming off for me (lately)."
Reminded of his pledge to take a more calculated approach ahead of the finals series, a sheepish Marshall said: "I shouldn't have said I was going to put the tricks away. (It's) just more a time and a place when to use them and it was probably a time when I felt it was on."
Coach Tim Sheens confirmed he'll have a quiet word to his star playmaker about his use of the flick pass but concedes he's fighting a losing battle.
"I've been trying for eight years to change it and I haven't been able to, but at the end of the day we are who we are and we are where we are because we do play a bit of football," Sheens said.
"And there's risk taking but to be quite honest you never achieve anything unless you take a risk."
"We've lived by that and I've coached that way all my life, so there'll be an element of that in our game and it can always worry me but it always worries the opposition as well."
The Tigers will finish no lower than third spot with a win over the Titans on the Gold Coast on Friday night.
But they'll have to do it without several key players who suffered injuries on Sunday afternoon.
Centre Chris Lawrence, who underwent surgery on his fractured jaw on Sunday night, is the biggest concern but the coach is confident the 21-year-old could return for a preliminary final in a month's time if the Tigers are still alive.
Meanwhile, prop John Skandalis is likely to miss at least the next two games with a buttock strain, while full-back Wade McKinnon will miss at least one week after re-injuring his troublesome hamstring.
Gareth Ellis is also in doubt for the Titans clash with a corked leg suffered against the Storm, while injured duo Bryce Gibbs (knee) and Liam Fulton (calf) are both unlikely to return for the Round 26 clash.