Albion Park-Oak Flats Eagles produced a brilliant second half display to secure their first win of the season at the expense of Group Seven heavyweights Gerringong Lions on Sunday.
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The visiting Lions looked on track to record their seventh win of the season after racing to a 22-0 lead midway through the first half of the round eight clash at Centenary Field.
But the never-say-die attitude of the Eagles shone through, with the James Hooper-coached outfit reducing the deficit to 24-10 at halftime and then fighting back again from 30-10 down to win an absolute thriller 36-32.
An emotional Hooper praised his team's fightback and labelled the win as one of his best in charge of the Eagles.
"We had a chat at halftime and we thought we're in this game. We felt we didn't get many calls from the ref but I knew if we held the ball, fixed our kicking game up, and we found our front really well, we could win the game. I'm so glad we got there," he said.
Playing like a team befitting their stature near the top of the ladder, Gerringong seemed well in control of the game early on as tries to Jack Quine, Jack Walsh, Liam Holland and Kal Collins, three of which were converted seeing the Lions race to a 22-0 lead after 26 minutes.
Two of those tries came with the Eagles a man down, after Cooper Tunbridge was sin-binned for 10 minutes for holding a player down too long.
But it was Albion Park who had the momentum heading into the second half following two tries to James Walsh.
The five-eighth's second try was something special, with Walsh catching the ball from the kick-off and running 80 metres untouched to bring the house down.
Walsh left three defenders in his wake and the side-step to beat Lions fullback Denver Ford had to be seen to be believed.
"At halftime I just said to the boys, I just want you to win this second half," Hooper said. "Mate, their response was unbelievable."
The Eagles, celebrating their centenary year this season, had only one point to their name from the opening seven rounds.
Hooper hoped upsetting the Lions would kick-start their 100-year celebrations.
'It's a massive win for us, especially as it is our first this year," he said.
"Hopefully that will kick-start our season. Gerringong are the benchmark, we beat them at home, now we've got Kiama next week, we really need to start rolling forward.
"We've still got a goal to make the semis. We just got to keep ticking on."
While it was the Eagles who crossed for seven tries to the Lions five, it was the visitors who looked like they would pick up the win late on when the scores were tied at 30-30 and Albion Park kicked the ball out on the full.
Having seen his team squander winnable matches in the past, Hooper feared another game was going to slip out of Albion Park's hands.
"We were worried on the bench at the time. I think that's been the issue at this club the last 10 years, we've been battered pillar to post.
"We are just trying to change the culture and trying to change the way things are going. I think we are slowly getting there. This win though was special."
His Gerringong counterpart Scott Stewart was left to rue "some dumb" decisions by his team.
"The second half we just did some real dumb stuff to let them back in," he said.
"We were well on top but gave away a lot of penalties when they were coming out of their end. Real silly stuff, particularly from our senior blokes which we shouldn't be doing.
"We've been playing well all season but today we started looking for shortcuts and we outsmarted ourselves.
"If we had just stuck to what we were doing, we were up 30-10 playing some good smart hard footy, but in the end we opened the door for them and they took it. Credit to them."
Meantime, Nowra-Bomaderry Jets proved they're the real deal by handing the Stingrays their first loss of the season on Sunday.
The Jets held tough to secure a 27-14 win at Bomaderry Sporting Complex.
Kiama Knights also won on Sunday, downing Berry-Shoalhaven Heads Magpies 30-14 at Kiama Showground.
Round eight kicked-off on Saturday, with Jamberoo Superoos and Shellharbour Sharks recording wins over Warilla-Lake South Gorillas and Milton-Ulladulla Bulldogs respectively.
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Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
