It didn't come as any shock to the Gold Coast Titans forward pack when the call came on Sunday morning to say their captain and leader would be missing in action due to the impending birth of his second child.
Knowing the task at hand, they had one job and one job only in mind... to get the win for their skipper and the Coast community.
With Tino Fa'asuamaleaui watching on, it was an almighty effort from the Titans engine room against the Sea Eagles, with a majority of the forward pack amassing over and above 100 metres; blitzing Manly's overall stats in runs (183 v 147), run metres (1,854 v 1,289), post-contact metres (465 v 416) and the average set distance (45.25 v 37.91).
Match: Titans v Sea Eagles
Round 22 -
home Team
Titans
15th Position
away Team
Sea Eagles
10th Position
Venue: Cbus Super Stadium, Gold Coast
Helping lead the charge was Moeaki Fotuaika, with Justin Holbrook's masterstroke of starting the hard man off the pine in the opening 30 minutes proving to be a genius move to provide just the punch his side needed against a tiring middle third attack.
In his 13th game of the season where he's eclipsed 100 running metres or more, it's the yardage he was able to work for after contact that is most impressive, bending the line with 68 post-contact metres, despite only the one tackle break.
It was an equally similar contribution from fellow middle forwards Jaimin Jolliffe, Jarrod Wallace, Isaac Liu and Herman Ese'ese with the quartet cracking the whips with their roles, running hard and making metres, defending strongly and even scoring tries with Wallace and Jolliffe combining to come up with first points of the day.
The platform the big boys laid opened the door for edge forwards Beau Fermor and David Fifita to have a field day, coming up with a hat-trick between the duo; including a double to the Dalby Devil and Cbus Super Stadium getting to witness Dave back to his destructive best.
Fermor puts the icing on the cake
For 23-year-old Fermor, the Queensland representative has found himself in a rich vein of form since his Origin experience, running over 110 metres in each performance as well as scoring three tries and averaging three tackle breaks a game.
His second row partner Fifita has also been toiling hard behind the scenes, adapting to a new role in 2022 given the fact he easily becomes a target by opposition teams given they know what he's capable of.
"Obviously, they're going come out and run at me so I have made a fair few tackles the last couple of weeks," he said.
"It's not ideal. But that's what we have to do sometimes... just make our tackles."
Making over 25 defensive efforts in his last four performances until he was able to break the shackles with a run that everyone has been talking about, the wrecking ball was pleased to be able to get back to what he does best.
Fifita goes beast mode in 60m classic
Quite modest with his four-pointer that has easily been judged the try of the week, Fifita said there wasn't much to the 60-metre runaway that got everyone out of their seats.
"Herman just gave me the ball and I just ran the ball hard, backed myself and scored the try," Fifita described.
The Titans forward is hoping the win will spark a late comeback to help finish strong ahead of a big 2023 on the horizon.
"We haven't been winning our games and we're not where we want to be, but moving forward, we've got a couple of games left and we just want to finish on a strong note, leading up to pre-season and next season," Fifita said.
"It was good to get the win and move forward and hopefully we can get a few more.
"For myself, it's been a tough year. I've been out for nine weeks due to injury with my knee, so it's just good to be back and trying to find my feet."
Fa'asuamaleaui returns to the fray for this Sunday's clash against the Dragons, hoping to join his forward pack in going back-to-back to claim the side's first away win of the season.
Match: Dragons v Titans
Round 23 -
home Team
Dragons
10th Position
away Team
Titans
15th Position
Venue: WIN Stadium, Wollongong