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Cue Andrew Fifita, he of so many uncharacteristic errors all night, toeing a deflected Todd Carney kick through, outsprinting stand-in Dragons fullback Jason Nightingale and touching down for the most improbable win.
Yep, that's just how things have been rolling for St George Illawarra in 2013.
With a choc-full of talent sitting in the stands ruled indisposed, a battered Dragons led Cronulla for all but one minute on Saturday night.
And it was the only minute that counted.
Fifita's miraculous try capped a scrappy Sharks comeback, clawing their way back from an 12-point deficit to snatch a 22-18 win at WIN Stadium.
"I just kicked it and hoped for the best," a nonplussed Fifita said of his 80th-minute heroics. "There was nothing to it.
"I saw Nightingale in front of me I thought I was going to get burned, but I never gave up."
Cronulla's top four hopes are alive and at least they already have one trophy in their cabinet for the year ... the Monty Porter Cup.
The Dragons will look to next week's clash with the also lowly Wests Tigers just hoping to finally confirm they will escape that rotten wooden spoon.
"It's just not quite happening at the moment," St George Illawarra coach Steve Price said. "The footy gods weren't on our side tonight.
"We were clearly the better team for the game, I thought, and they got that lucky try right at the death.
"It's tough to take, but I'm really proud of the boys and we played some good attacking footy in that first half."
While Price hinted he didn't have any concerns with Fifita's match-winner, where he just grounded the ball before Nightingale, he took umbrage at the decision to allow Beau Ryan's try six minutes from full time.
Sharks back-rower Luke Lewis clattered into Nightingale while chasing a Jayson Bukuya grubber, freeing the ball for Ryan to score. Lewis' challenge on Nightingale had suspicions of a shoulder charge, which left Price bewildered.
"The last try ... I didn't have too much issue with it," he said. "The one before I did ... the shoulder charge from Luke Lewis. We could all see that.
"I don't know what it's nearly going to take [for it to be stopped]. Someone to nearly break their neck?
"Mick Weyman with a crusher tackle and we couldn't get a penalty and the week before Trent Merrin was that close to napping his ACL and we couldn't even get a penalty. It's tough, but we're fighting hard."
For the most part, the Dragons looked like pulling off a win deemed highly unlikely in the build-up.
That was until the Shire boys, stinging from a half-time bake from coach Shane Flanagan, snapped out of their slumber to get within two points through second-half tries to Isaac De Gois and Ryan.
Then Fifita played his part, but coach Shane Flanagan was still seething over his side's poor ball control which saw them complete just 59% of their sets.
"I don't know if I'm happy, I'm still a bit numb," Flanagan said.
"We were awful with the ball. We gifted the Dragons field position, we gifted them points. We've just got to cut it out of our game."
World Cup tourists-in-waiting Nightingale and Brett Morris were at the heart of an inspired Dragons first-half performance, the former making a mockery of his reluctance to wear the No.1.
Galloping downfield on the back of a Sharks error, the Kiwi international couldn't outsprint Sharks back-rower Luke Lewis, but was on hand to score off the next play when Morris dished up a timely offload.
After Carney sailed his kick-off out on the full from the re-start, Nightingale rifled an inch-perfect pass for Morris to dart over before the Sharks could touch the ball again.
Ben Pomeroy brushed off some feeble defence to reduce the deficit, but it only served as a pre-cursor to one of the most bizarre tries of the year.
Illawarra product Ryan rushed out of the line to bat down an Adam Quinlan pass, but it only cannoned into Runciman's head and into the path of Morris to notch his second.
CRONULLA SHARKS 22 (Ben Pomeroy, Isaac De Gois, Beau Ryan, Andrew Fifita tries; Todd Carney 3 goals) defeated ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS 18 (Brett Morris 2, Jason Nightingale tries; Chase Stanley 3 goals) at WIN Stadium. Referee: Ben Cummins, Luke Phillips. Crowd: 11,853.