Manly Sea Eagles have held on to record a 36-30 upset win over Melbourne Storm in a bizarre finish to their NRL clash at 4 Pines Park on Thursday.
Halves Daly Cherry-Evans and Kieran Foran seemed to have engineered a crushing win for the hosts, before the Storm ran in four tries in the final five minutes to leave Manly coach Des Hasler sweating.
Nevertheless, it was a comprehensive effort by the Sea Eagles, who earned their first win of the season over a top-eight team.
In contrast, the Storm - missing star half Cameron Munster - were lacklustre from the outset and struggled to create opportunities offensively despite the return of fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen, who had been sidelined since round nine with injury.
The Storm began the game the stronger side, before Cherry-Evans' 40/20 kick swung the momentum, resulting in a first-half double to wing Jason Saab to send the Sea Eagles into the interval with an 18-6 advantage.
Kiwis hooker Brandon Smith produced one of the best efforts of the night, stripping a ball one-on-one from Martin Taupau at the kick restart to pull back a try.
But Manly continued to terrorise the Storm's edge defence, with tries to Haumole Olakau'atu and Tolutau Koula extending the lead to 34-12, befroe the Storm's late try-scoring blitz.
"It was four minutes of mayhem [at the end] that we have to adjust, we have to fix, and we will," said Hasler after the game
"At the end of the day it was a game tonight that we had our backs against the wall, we had to win tonight and in doing so we beat the Melbourne Storm which is no easy feat.
"Some parts weren't pretty but there's a lot there that is positive which is what we'll take out of it."
The result does competition leaders Penrith Panthers a favour, pushing their edge over the Storm atop the NRL ladder out to four points, while the Sea Eagles move up to eighth.