The race for the finals was given the shake-up it so desperately needed ahead of round 20, with just five weeks of the regular season now remaining until crunch time.
The Sharks and Dragons cling on to seventh and eighth spot respectively, but have a mountain of teams behind them vying for a shot in September.
The Dragons have been entrenched in the top eight all season but are slowly coming undone in the wake of 'barbeque gate', with Sunday's dour loss to the 10th-placed Titans blowing the top eight-fight wide open.
The Sharks locked in a win against the Bulldogs, but it was a performance that may have teams behind them licking their lips.
One of those sides will be Canberra, who with Friday night's epic win over Parramatta are within range of an unthinkable finals berth.
After an exciting weekend of action in round 19, here are all the major talking points.
FIFITA BOUNCES BACK IN A BIG WAY
Titans big man David Fifita went missing last weekend as the Gold Coast went down to Parramatta.
He was then shifted to the bench ahead of Sunday's clash with the Dragons, but was immense as soon as he came on.
Fifita scored a 33rd minute try and made two linebreaks and 13 tackle breaks as the Gold Coast claimed their first win of the season over a top-eight side.
Fifita has had a reasonably successful first season on the glitter strip, but has been accused of going missing when it really counts, especially when the Titans come up against heavyweight opposition.
The Titans are in a battle with the Dragons, Raiders, Sharks and Knights for the final two spots in the top eight, and Sunday's game had a huge impact on what the table will look like at the end of the season.
And when it mattered, Fifita showed out.
LUCK IS NOT ON JOHNSON'S SIDE
The injury curse has struck Shaun Johnson again, as the veteran playmaker missed the second half of Cronulla's win over Canterbury with a hamstring problem.
Soft tissue injuries have been a blight on Johnson's NRL career, with multiple hamstring tears and more recently a ruptured achilles last year that saw him miss the start of the Sharks' 2021 campaign limiting his time on the field in past seasons.
With Chad Townsend sent to the Warriors for the remainder of the year, Johnson was just beginning to hit his straps as Cronulla's chief playmaker as the seventh-placed side look to lock down a finals spot.
The matter soured the Sharks' albeit ugly win, and marks a potentially crushing hurdle in their push towards September, with Johnson potentially facing several weeks in the casualty ward again.
"We won't know the severity of his hamstring injury there until tomorrow," interim Sharks coach Josh Hannay said after the win over the Bulldogs.
"We'll just cross our fingers that it's not too bad, we're starting to get a little bit thin again ... we've got some good talent on the pine again at the moment and that's not ideal.
"One thing I know about Shaun is he looks after himself. He's a reasonably quick healer and I know he'll jump into his recovery and rehab to get back as quick as he can."
WORRYING SIGNS FOR EELS AT THE BUSINESS END
Parramatta possess the forward pack to match it with any team in this competition, but Brad Arthur wouldn't have liked what his big men put down against Canberra.
The Eels were well contained in the middle of the park by the Green Machine's pack, which itself was undermanned with the likes of Elliot Whitehead, Ryan Sutton, Dunamis Lui and Corey Horsburgh sidelined.
The flow-on effect on the Eels' backline - already missing general Mitch Moses to injury - was evident, as the likes of Dylan Brown and Clint Gutherson failed to create points given the lopsided battle around the ruck.
Parramatta have promised for three seasons now to be a consistently competitive outfit on a quest to end the NRL's longest premiership drought.
But performances like Friday's against the Raiders, a bottom eight outfit, will do nothing to inspire their fans just over a month out from finals.
TITANS ROOKIE'S DEBUT SPELLS TROUBLE FOR TAYLOR
The poise shown by rookie Titans halfback Toby Sexton in his highly-anticipated NRL debut against the Dragons highlighted exactly why the club see a long future for the 20-year-old.
Sexton steered the ship beautifully, finishing the 32-10 win with a try, an assist and 161 run metres, while his kicking in general play, and with the tee, converting 5/5 attempts, was equally impressive.
Justin Holbrook said afterwards it was a performance that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who's watched Sexton's development over the years.
“He’s a smart halfback, very mature for a 20-year-old. He’s got a 30-year-old brain which is terrific. He’s a really good organiser and has a good kicking game,” said the Titans coach.
What Sexton's performance in his maiden NRL game says about Ash Taylor's future is that his chances of holding a place in the team, let alone earning a new contract, appears direr by the week.
Holbrook would've seen more than enough on Sunday from Sexton to all but pencil him in for a halves spot alongside Titans co-captain Jamal Fogarty next year.
Taylor, the Titans' $1 million halfback, has been good without being great since Holbrook arrived at the start of last year, and looks more destined for the exit door as the weeks tick away.
