Newcastle has paid departing hooker Danny Buderus the ultimate tribute, producing an display of intensity unrivaled this season to down defending premiers Melbourne 17-16 in a scintillating encounter at EnergyAustralia Stadium.
On a night where 19,568 Novocastrians turned out to say goodbye to one of the Knights favourite sons, a stunning performance has the home side saying hello to finals football after almost assuring themselves of a spot in the playoffs.
Fittingly, the man charged with the responsibility of filling the enormous boots of Buderus played a major hand in the victory, with Matt Hilder scoring the Knights opening four pointer, then laying on the game-breaker for prop Jesse Royal deep in the second stanza.
As the game crept into the final 20 minutes, a late hit from Jeremy Smith on Kurt Gidley gave the Knights some prime attacking position and Hilder hit Royal with a super flat pass to break a 10-all deadlock in the 63rd minute.
Gidley added the extras to give the home side a 16-10 advantage, and from the restart, Dureau snapped a match-winning 42 metre field goal to stretch the advantage to seven.
Melbourne refused to lie down, and came up with a try to Sika Manu in the 77th minute to set up a grandstand finish, but the Knights had done enough, holding on in a frantic finals few minutes to secure one of the greatest victories in the history of the club.
The Knights were visibly pumped up following an emotional farewell lap from Buderus, and Billy Slater dropped the kickoff cold to give the home side the opportunity to get off to a flyer.
The Storm then produced a second uncharacteristic error in the space of a minute, when Hilder scooped up a flick pass from Ben Cross to crash over for a soft try next to the posts.
Gidley added the extras from adjacent to the posts, and the Knights were flying.
A Storm play-the-ball infringement gifted Gidley another two points in the sixth minute, extending the home side's advantage out to 8-nil.
The home side continued to attack the Storm on the edges, but an errant pass from Dureau took the wind out of the Knights sails in an instant.
Greg Inglis pounced to snap up an intercept and streak 70 metres to touch down under the posts, with Cameron Smith's conversion closing the gap to 8-6 after 25 minutes.
Dureau then looked set to make up for his blunder, producing a magic chip and chase in the 35th minute.
The diminutive half won the race to the ball on the Storm 20 and soccered ahead into the in-goal, but was taken down somewhat controversially by Slater in the race to the ball.
Despite protestations from skipper Gidley for Slater to be sin-binned, referee Shayne Hayne deemed a penalty sufficient and Gidley added the points to give Newcastle a 10-6 lead at the break.
Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy asked his side to up the intensity at the break, and they duly obliged with an impressive four pointer to Israel Folau from a precision cross-kick from Cronk.
Smith's conversion attempt from the corner was waved away, leaving scores locked at 10 apiece with 34 minutes to play.
NEWCASTLE 17 (M Hilder J Royal tries K Gidley 4 goals S Dureau field goal)
bt MELBOURNE 16 (I Folau G Inglis S Manu tries C Smith 2 goals) at EnergyAustralia Stadium. Referee: S Hayne. Crowd: 19,568
