St George Illawarra Dragons coach Paul McGregor still believes his side can reach the finals after his side caused one of the upsets of the season, downing bitter local rivals Cronulla 32-18 at Jubilee Oval on Saturday night.
The Dragons put in one of their most impressive – and exciting – performances of the season to run out deserved winners at their spiritual home to put a serious dent in the Sharks' minor premiership hopes.
The Dragons moved to 22 points with the win, two points outside the top eight with three games remaining.
What will give them encouragement is the fact they play the NRL's bottom three sides – the Roosters, the Eels and Newcastle – in their last three matches.
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McGregor said the Dragons were still in control of their own destiny.
"We've got to win every game. Which we're capable of, depending on our roster each week. We haven't really had a good 17 every week. So we'll see how we go," he said.
"We get Leeson Ah Mau back this week. That's going to help. We had three back tonight that missed last week in [Tyson] Frizell, [Joel] Thompson and [Josh] Dugan.
"We're getting some troops back and we're playing sides that are all below us on the competition so certainly it's in our hands.
"We've got to just keep getting a bit better each week like we did tonight. You never know."
The Dragons showed their intentions from the opening set, with a number of expansive passes and offloads that helped them march downfield.
The more unstructured approach was a winner for the Dragons with Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan admitting after the game that while his side expected it, they didn't handle it well.
Dragons captain Gareth Widdop said his side would take a lot of confidence from the result – and the way they played – into the final weeks of the campaign.
"[Cronulla are]Â a top team. They're on top of the ladder, they've been great all year. So to get the win we should take a lot of confidence from that," he said.
"Especially going in at half-time [behind] to come home strong and finish like that was obviously great.
"The work we're putting in off the field that people don't see is paying off, which is great.Â
"The biggest thing now is to back up next week because if we don't [tonight] means nothing."
Cronulla suffered a major setback before the game with captain Paul Gallen withdrawing minutes before kick-off after suffering a calf strain in the warm-up.
But St George Illawarra's flashy start suffered an early setback.
A Jake Marketo cut-out pass inside his own 20 metre line was intercepted by Valentine Holmes, who strolled over to score under the posts and give Cronulla a 6-0 lead after three minutes.
St George Illawarra would have had themselves on the board five minutes later if it wasn't for a desperate try-saving tackle from Chad Townsend on Dugan.
Dugan, in his first match back since suffering a broken jaw, looked certain to score in the corner before the Sharks halfback intervened, with Dugan losing the ball as he attempted to ground it just short of the line.
A minute later and Dugan produced a try-saving tackle of his own at the other end, putting his body on the line to bundle Sosaia Feki into touch after a break from Luke Lewis.
In a blistering start, the Dragons levelled the scores after 11 minutes when Benji Marshall ran to the line and put in a chip kick for Euan Aitken.
The Dragons centre fought off Jack Bird to field the kick before showing great strength to ground the ball despite the efforts of Townsend and Ben Barba.
Just before the half-hour mark the Sharks took back the lead with a slick 90-metre effort.
Hitting the ball off their own try line, the Sharks gambled, shifting left through James Maloney and Wade Graham, who found Feki. Feki then drew Dugan to allow Barba to score his 14th try of the season.
A Maloney penalty goal on the stroke of half-time extended Cronulla's advantage to 12-6 at the break before the Dragons began their resurgence nine minutes into the second half.
A Tariq Sims offload on the back of a strong run allowed Mitch Rein to spread the ball wide before the Dragons hooker backed up on the inside to score after from a Jason Nightingale pass.
Five minutes later and they had taken the lead.
Marshall showed good hands to find Widdop, whose pinpoint kick into the in-goal area was grounded by Sims, with Widdop's conversion giving St George Illawarra an 18-12 advantage.
And the Dragons weren't done, making the most of a lucky break after Gerard Beale was ruled to have knocked on attempting to field a kick, despite replays showing the ball had initially gone backwards.
From the ensuing set Sims charged over for his second try to extend the Dragons' lead to 24-12.
The Sharks reduced the deficit with 18 minutes remaining when Ricky Leutele dived over in the corner after a Barba break.
Another Maloney penalty goal with 10 minutes to play got Cronulla to back within six points and looked like setting up a grandstand finish.
But an Andrew Fifita error from Cronulla's next set gifted St George Illawarra field position which they made the most of as Widdop sliced through to score and secure a memorable derby victory.
Flanagan said there was no need to panic after the Sharks lost their second game in a row on the back of their 16-game unbeaten run but admitted his side needed to improve – and quickly.
"We're not playing good footy at the moment," he said.
"Some things just aren't working for us like they were earlier in the year.
"But we'll keep working hard. Good teams sometimes fall out of form but they find it again."