The finals have come a week early with Cronulla and the Wests Tigers pitched into a virtual playoff for eighth spot in what shapes as a Leichhardt Oval blockbuster.
After 24 rounds, the make-up of the top eight is all but sorted with only the final berth to be decided when the Sharks and Tigers meet next Sunday in the second-last game of the regular season.
The Sharks remain in eighth spot on 24 points, despite having their hearts broken on Sunday by Aidan Sezer’s boot in Canberra’s 15-14 golden-point thriller at PointsBet Stadium.
But the ninth-placed Tigers are only behind them on for-and-against after thumping St George Illawarra 42-14 just two hours later at the SCG.
The Leichhardt match has already sold out with the final 2000 tickets being snapped on Sunday within an hour.
The game will end in heartbreak for Tigers great Robbie Farah or Sharks legend Paul Gallen with one to be sent packing into retirement.
“That game decides where our fate will lie. We’re looking forward to it,” Tigers coach Michael Maguire said.
Maguire had shielded his team from the result of Sunday’s Sharks-Raiders game at Benji Marshall’s insistence, with players not finding out the result until after fulltime.
Not even Maguire was aware his team’s season was still alive until he was informed at halftime.
“Everyone around the media were trying to tell us,” Maguire said.
“But it was irrelevant to us. We’re trying to do certain things in our game but you don’t give yourself the opportunity otherwise.
“The only thing we can control is what we’re doing on the field. The players were very focused around that – that was good.”
Sharks coach John Morris said his team were ready to “play the game of our life”.
While Gallen said of the prospect of missing the finals: “It’d be embarrassing, to be honest with you.
“I’m not going to hide away from that one bit. It won’t be good enough.”
On Saturday night, the Sydney Roosters locked up second spot and killed off Penrith’s season with a 22-6 victory, despite being without Cooper Cronk, Boyd Cordner and Jake Friend.
Melbourne secured the minor premiership, making a statement with a 36-6 defeat of Manly which came at a heavy cost to the Sea Eagles with star Tom Trbojevic suffering a ruptured pec.
Newcastle restored some pride with a 38-4 whipping of last-placed Gold Coast but it wasn’t enough to salvage their season.
David Fifita reinforced his reputation as the game’s next big thing as he produced a barnstorming performance in Brisbane’s 17-16 defeat of Parramatta which guaranteed the Broncos a finals spot.
South Sydney jumped back into the top four with 31-10 win over the Warriors.
North Queensland bid farewell to 1300SMILES Stadium with a 15-8 win on Thursday night to end Canterbury’s four-game winning streak.
