The Wests Tigers have effectively ended the North Queensland Cowboys finals chances, after a 28-4 win at Leichhardt Oval.
With both sides no guarantee to make finals at this stage, it was the Tigers who wanted it more, who were hungrier.
Lacklustre, no composure and no direction in attack, it was clear that the Cowboys were disjointed and struggling for cohesion.
Hoodoos are also a real thing and if you are a Cowboys fan, you would know that a win at Leichhardt has not happened since 2000.
It got very ugly, very early, when Esan Marsters plucked a ball out of thin air, spun out of a tackle and planted the ball down to score.
Not to be outdone, Farah then scored a try of his own, a classic dummy half attempt.
The third try then came through Paul Momirovski, who ran away from the defence, cut back inside and bamboozled the Cowboys defenders.
Luck did not favour the Cowboys either, as they had two disallowed tries.
The first was an alleged forward pass from Michael Morgan, the second an obstruction that robbed winger Kyle Feldt a try.
They would get on the scoresheet through Feldt in the second half, courtesy of a back-line play but that was all she wrote.
The Tigers would score two more tries as Marsters hit the perfect line to score off a Benji Marshall pass.
Veteran back-rower Chris Lawrence then scored his first try of the year.
In the end, the Cowboys sunk badly and the Tigers flew high, holding a spot in the top eight for now.
Although the decisions against his side were made, Cowboys coach Paul Green did not agree with them.
“Early, there was a couple of decisions that went against us, which I don’t necessarily agree with,” Green said.
“But we’ve got to move on from those two.
“But you can’t discount it either. It made a huge difference in the context of the game.
“We had two tries taken off us in that first half which were questionable in my opinion.”
Although they do sit in the top eight and have a favourable draw ahead, Tigers coach Michael Maguire says the focus is one game at a time.
“I don’t think we need to look too much further than next week,” Maguire said.
“The reason why we play the game is to play finals the boys know that. But if they get too far ahead of themselves you can fall short.
“They’ve got to make sure they enjoy the fact we’ve had strong wins… but it’s back to work as we know.”
NRL News Player of the Game
3. Robbie Farah
2. Esan Marsters
- Luke Brooks