The Sydney Roosters were blown off the park in the opening half hour of their qualifying final against the Penrith Panthers on Friday evening, and now face the daunting prospect of a semi-final next weekend.
The win was Penrith's tenth straight finals win, piloted by a returning Nathan Cleary at a sold out Penrith Park - the final game at the venue before it is redeveloped.
Here are all the key talking points from the opening game of the 2024 NRL finals.
Trent Robinson's selections all wrong
Sydney Roosters' coach Trent Robinson made some incredible coaching decisions pre-game, shunting Spencer Leniu to the bench, while shuffling Nat Butcher to prop and moving Terrell May into the starting side.
The rationale behind it was to use Leniu's impact off the pine, but by the time the coach got around to bringing this year's New South Wales Blues State of Origin debut onto the park, the game was already gone.
Starting him from the bench is one thing. It didn't work. The Panthers middle third rolled the Roosters early as they bolted out to that 22-0 lead in almost as many minutes.
But leaving him on the bench for as long as he did is simply unforgiveable. The coach himself admitted in the post-match press conference it was his bench players who seemed to change the course of the game, stopping it from become an embarrassement.
Some on social media wanted to question Robinson's job security. That's not the topic of this, and not a position I completely agree with either given the Roosters have made the top four and now need to play the finals without three of their most important players, but it was a horror call which backfired spectactularly.
Can anyone stop the a Cleary-led Panthers?
The Penrith Panthers have not been at their best for much of the 2024 season.
That much is clear.
They missed the minor premiership and at times it looked like they'd miss a home qualifying final. That, by any stretch, isn't a bad season, but by Panthers' standards, it almost was.
On Friday night though, they proved there is plenty left in the tank with an unebelievable first 25 minutes of the contest.
What is clear is the difference Nathan Cleary provides this team. He has spent much of the season injured, but his kicking game, guidance and control during the opening onslaught led the Panthers to something close to perfect rugby league.
It was what he did in last year's grand final, and if he can do it twice more this season, it's impossible to see the Panthers not winning a fourth straight premiership.
The NRL's new great hoodoo
Ten in a row.
Not just finals wins, but Friday night's game marked the tenth time in a row the Roosters have lost to the Panthers.
The run of dominance over the last four years has meant the Panthers don't lose very many games at all, but the Roosters are not exactly a bottom eight side.
Their issue is defence, and it has been in recent seasons as well, but when you consider the James Tedesco-captained side also have trouble beating the Melbourne Storm, typically seen as the other long-term competition heavyweight, it does leave you to question just where the mentality of Trent Robinson's coaching is at.
Why can't he get his side, able to knock almost everyone else by the wayside, to beat the Panthers and Storm?
Either way, this is now a full blown hoodoo.
A single moment which summed up Roosters
In the first half, there was a moment where Connor Watson charged down a kick, chased it all the way and looked on his way to score before being mowed down by Nathan Cleary and other Penrith defenders.
What followed was madness.
Despite having extra distance to run, and having to turn around, the entire Penrith side managed to get back onside before any of the Roosters' players could get into dummy half.
Instead of going on the counter attack, the Roosters were then forced to work their way through a reset Penrith defensive line after Watson was forced to wait to play the ball.
It was a moment which entirely summed up the first half. The Roosters by that stage had made almost 100 more tackles and were down in the energy department, but there is still nearly zero excuse for that occurring.
Did second half controversy cost the Roosters?
The Roosters came out of the halftime break with plenty of gusto, and scored a pair of tries in a handful of minutes through Joseph Suaalii and James Tedesco to get a sniff at the game.
That was all brought crashing down though with a handful of questionable, bordering on flat out bad decisions from referee Ashley Klein.
The major one was a forward pass called, where replays clearly indicated the ball had, at worst, travelled in a flat line. The potentially backwards pass being called prevented a Roosters' try, with Klein in perfect position to make the call.
The other call was a missed trip, with Penrith winger clearly sticking his leg out to stop Sunia Turuva. That didn't lead to points, but would have resulted in a penalty for the Roosters to get out of their own end.
The tri-colours may not have got back into the game, but Trent Robinson in the post-match presser was adamant it could have been a different game had the lead been cut to eight on the back of that forward pass call.
It's fairly tough to disagree with him.
Penrith's back five make the difference again
Penrith's back five are simply on another level.
It doesn't matter the week, they just get the job done. Their style of play simply isn't possible without the enormous metre-eating of those at the back.
The stats from Friday's contest are off the charts, albeit just about normal for Ivan Cleary's side. Dylan Edwards had 280 metres from 22 carries, Sunia Turuva 170 from 18 carries, Izack Tago 156 from 17 carries, Paul Alamoti 116 metres from 12 runs, and Brian To'o 209 metres from 18 runs.
James Tedesco was the best of the Roosters with 172 metres, while Daniel Tupou also had 151, but the rest - Joseph Suaalii with 107 metres, Joseph Manu with 111 and Dominic Young with 88 - all had less than the entirety of Penrith's back five.
That's not to say it was a fair fight for the players in red, white and blue. They were out muscled and on the back foot for much of the game, but those numbers are standard for the Panthers, and an enormous part of the reason their forward pack monsters most they come up against, as they did to the Roosters.
