Farewelling Pat Richards and Keith Galloway in their final game at Leichhardt Oval, which was coincidentally Aaron Woods 100th NRL game – the Wests Tigers caused one of the biggest boilovers of the season after downing the Melbourne Storm 34-16 on Friday night.
Report: Wests Tigers stun Storm at Leichhardt
James Tedesco the cream of the Tigers' crop
Scoring twice and setting up two other tries, Tigers fullback James Tedesco was everywhere against Melbourne.
Coming up against some of the greatest players in the modern era, Tedesco didn't shirk any responsibility and simply shined against genuine premiership contenders despite his own team's current lowly status.
"He's a threat every time he gets the ball – he has genuine pace out the back, he's an instinctive player, he always seems to turn up in the right spot and he has good hands too," Tigers captain Robbie Farah said post-game.
"We need to give him as much ball as we can because every time he touches it the opposition defence worries about him."
Storm not blaming travel for loss
Two trips to New Zealand, an unmemorable visit to the historic Belmore Sportsground and a quick venture to Leichhardt in five weeks hardly bred many noteworthy results – but don't try and convince Storm coach Craig Bellamy the club's string of away trips was the cause of their 18-point loss to the Tigers after being up 10-0 after 16 minutes.
"At the end of the day, we had a couple of long trips where we went to New Zealand twice in three weeks. But after the first [NZ trip] we came back and we won by 50," Bellamy said post-game.
"It's just an excuse. We didn't look tired at the start of the game so to me we just got soft mentally, decided to take the foot off the pedal and received our just desserts."
Tigers turn the corner
2015 was always going to be a year of learning and progression for the Wests Tigers. Their coach Jason Taylor has constantly said his troops were improving and the results would come.
Beating South Sydney by 28-points back in Round 14, everyone was quick to sing the Tigers' praises. However their next win didn't come until they beat the Storm on Friday. Smashing a five-game losing streak out of the park, Taylor was optimistic about his team's fortunes for the remainder of the year.
"The hardest thing for us has been to keep at it, to keep positive and keep working," he said.
"We desperately needed a win and we got it. It was really important, you can only tell the guys for so long that it's going to come and we are making progress, and we are."
Koroibete's mixed Leichhardt return
He may have scored twice, but the fact he let in four down his defensive side isn't the best news for Storm winger Marika Koroibete.
Peppered by the bombs of Luke Brooks and Mitch Moses all evening, Koroibete's Leichhardt homecoming was littered with errors and misreads.
One of the most dominant players across the competition on his day, it's a shame his former Tigers team revealed the blueprint to showing up the Fijian Flyer, especially with it being just five weeks out from the finals.
The silly season begins
With just six games remaining, and with many a clubs' finals hopes dashed, it's that time of the year again where cellar-dwelling teams bring the pain to genuine premiership contenders.
In what was arguably the biggest upset of season 2015 – it's surely only the beginning when it comes to future boilovers. Expect plenty more huge upsets from the likes of the Titans, Parramatta and Newcastle as the clock ticks down towards the finals.
Melbourne have a hungry Titans team to look forward to in Round 22. Coach Bellamy will surely not allow another slip up.
