The Newcastle Knights have sealed eighth place and a semi-finals berth with a thrilling 40-24 win over the South Sydney Rabbitohs in front of a sold-out Ausgrid Stadium on Friday night.
A season-record of 30,729 fans turned up to watch an action-packed battle for the last remaining finals spot and they weren't disappointed as the Knights ran in five tries to one in a red hot first-half performance for a 30-6 half-time lead.
Knights' winger Akuila Uate picked up his third try of the night when he scored 10 minutes into the second half to make it 34-6 but with their season on the line the Rabbitohs dug deep for an improbable comeback.
Souths ran in three tries in 16 minutes to make it 34-24 with six minutes remaining, but time ran out for the Bunnies and Uate sealed the win for the Knights with an intercept try for his fourth four-pointer of the night on the final siren.
Veteran Adam MacDougall, playing in his final home game, sent the massive home crowd into raptures by converting the final try as the Souths players trudged off the ground falling just short of the finals despite a late-season revival.
Newcastle will travel to Melbourne to take on the Storm in the first semi-final next weekend.
The Knights opened the scoring in the seventh minute when wily hooker Isaac De Gois made a jinking dart from dummy half just 10m out from the line.
He bumped out of the tackle of Shannan McPherson before changing course and squeezing between three defenders to crash over next to the right upright. Gidley converted to make it 6-0 to Newcastle.
The home side was in again just four minutes later when Jarrod Mullen ran across the South 10m line before popping a lovely pass to put prop Antonio Kaufusi over under the posts.
Gidley added the extras to make it 12-0 after 12 minutes.
Newcastle made it three tries inside the opening 15 minutes when Gidley chimed into the backline on an extra-man play just off the fringe of the ruck.
He found Mullen, who scampered into space before drawing Bunnies fullback Nathan Merritt and sending second-rower Chris Houston on a 25m run to score near the posts. Gidley converted to make it 18-0.
The Rabbitohs hit back a few moments later when they exposed inexperienced Knights centre Siutonga Likiliki, who rushed off his line to make a hit on Michael Crocker only for the representative forward to offload and send centre Shaune Corrigan over 15 in from the sideline.
Chris Sandow steered the conversion over to make it 18-6 to the Knights midway through the first half.
The Rabbitohs almost scored again straight away when Issac Luke popped a great pass for Merritt to sprint into space on the Knights 40.
He set sail for the corner but Gidley made a great cover tackle to put the Souths flyer into touch just a couple of metres short of the try-line.
The combination of veteran Adam MacDougall and State of Origin winger Akuila Uate swung the momentum back the Knights' favour with a well-executed try in the 28th minute.
MacDougall pushed off the tackles of Fetuli Talanoa and Chris McQueen before flicking a pass out to Uate who bulldozed his way over from five metres out to score in the corner.
Gidley threaded the conversion from the sideline to make it 24-6.
The Knights