Coach Tim Sheens hailed the performances of his star players after they all stood up in Wests Tigers' hour of need, turning a 16-point deficit into an astonishing 26-16 victory over North Queensland at Leichhardt Oval on Monday night.
Robbie Farah, Benji Marshall, Lote Tuqiri and Chris Lawrence made significant contributions as the Tigers poured on 26 unanswered points to stun the Cowboys - finishing off a remarkable round of comeback wins.
Marshall, as is often the case, mixed the sublime with a fair share of mistakes but produced two massive plays to get the Tigers over the line.
"The good players stood up and got us home," Sheens said.
"They delivered what we pay them to do and that's to help win us games."
"They had some poor moments but they had some great moments too."
Marshall had a hand in three tries and scored one himself to make up for a poor night with the boot (one goal from six attempts).
Three moments of magic stand out; the first when he chipped from near halfway, regathered and threw a 20m pass out to Tuqiri to score as the comeback roared into life early in the second half.
Then, four minutes from the end with the scores deadlocked 16-all, he put Liam Fulton into a hole with a lovely pass for the try that broke North Queensland's resistance.
He put an exclamation mark on the game with a 70m solo try in the final minute, showing speed, agility and evasive skills in an exhilarating dash to the line.
You can wear Marshall's occasional brain explosions when he's in this mood.
"He's had a mixed night, he knows that," Sheens said.
"But when the big moments are there, he and Robbie and Chrissy Lawrence delivered some good things."
Farah conceded the Tigers' attitude was wrong from the beginning and they were lucky to escape with a win that gives them a share of second place.
"We can-t be giving teams 16-point head starts," he said.
"They came to play and we weren't expecting that. They kind of ambushed us."
"We showed good character to come back in the game and in the second half I thought we dominated."
"We'll get a lot out of that."
Sheens admitted the small but raucous Leichhardt crowd played its part in getting the Tigers back into the contest.
The penalties favoured the home side 9-2, every close call going their way.
North Queensland coach Neil Henry lamented: "The Leichhardt crowd, eh. It's probably worth a few penalties."
"The game is pretty even but to be on the wrong end of that (penalty) count - 9-2 - I don-t think we deserved that."
"When we got a little bit of possession we probably didn-t have enough petrol to really put them under pressure."
Skipper Johnathan Thurston added: "They are very vocal here and every 50-50 call they got."
"They kept getting penalty after penalty after penalty."
"It does hurt. It's a little frustrating. We had a good first half but the game goes for 80, not 40."
Thurston's frustration was evident at fulltime, the star No.7 clashing with football manager Dean Lance after Lance had asked him to pose in a photo with visiting schoolchildren from Queensland.
Thurston refused the request and headed for the dressing room.