A month after admitting he has not been up to scratch this NRL season, Josh Papalii unleashed against the Roosters to lead Canberra to victory on Thursday night.
The softly-spoken behemoth gave himself the honest assessment after the Raiders slumped to a 14-6 loss to Manly, but has since turned his own form around.
And with so many injuries against the Roosters, Papalii stepped up when it counted.
As well as 147 running metres, he stormed through the middle in the 66th minute to put the Raiders in front – a lead they scrapped to hold onto for the gutsy win.
He was the best player on the field for the Raiders in their march to the grand final last season, but a frank talk with coach Ricky Stuart has helped him rediscover it.
“We had a good talk, Papa [and I], one thing about Papa is he’s a very honest guy who analyses his game very honestly,’ Stuart said on Thursday night.
“He knew himself he had to step up to the better standard of player.
“We’re running off the back of him and Joe Tapine at the moment.
“He (Tapine) has really lifted his standard of play and the last two weeks he’s been a credit to himself as well.”
If the talk with Stuart didn’t do it, copping an elbow in the nose from Angus Crichton sure did.
The two were caught in a confrontation in the 50th minute, when, trying to get out of a tackle, Crichton clipped Papalii with his elbow causing a nose bleed.
Papalii retaliated with a swinging arm and gave away a penalty for the Roosters to go ahead 14-12.
However, Papalii soon got the ultimate revenge with the match winner.
“I don’t understand why we didn’t get the penalty but when he got whacked in the nose like that I was pretty confident we would go on to win the match because you don’t poke the bear,” Stuart said.