There's a shift unfolding on the ladder with sides in the top eight like the Roosters and Sea Eagles suffering back-to-back defeats and teams like the Dragons and Broncos climbing.
Meanwhile, the competition's cellar dwellers Newcastle - now last after their 50-2 loss to Melbourne - as well as the likes of the Titans and Raiders continue to learn some harsh lessons.
Here's what we learned from round eight.
Titans still struggle to put two strong halves together
Good news: The Titans finally bucked their trend of poor first halves.
Bad news: They struggled in the second half.
Their 4-0 first-half lead showcased their defensive grit and willingness to attack from the get-go.
You can't blame them for falling to the league-leading Panthers, but it was underwhelming to see their resilience fade.
Now, the challenge is playing at a high level for all 80 mins. There is still plenty of time left to push for a top 8 position.
Rabbitohs don't have that ruthless attitude
When Karl Lawton was sent off in the eighth minute, it seemed almost a certainty that South Sydney would dominate the Sea Eagles for the following 72 minutes.
They went on to win 40-22 but didn't put the game to bed until the closing stages, only leading by two points at halftime.
To the Sea Eagles' credit, they put on a very gritty and determined performance, but the Rabbitohs should have been more ruthless and clinical.
It may not seem too significant, but if the Bunnies play in a crunch match where an opposition player is sin-binned or sent off, you wouldn't be too confident that they would be able to make their advantage count and put their opponents to the sword.
Roosters forced to rue yet another slow start
The Roosters, once again, entered into half-time trailing; having produced plenty of errors (7) and wasted good attacking opportunities. It gave the Bulldogs a lead to defend. And Trent Robinson’s men a deficit to chase, which is becoming an all-too-familiar pattern.
Last week, in their Anzac clash against the Dragons, they trailed 14-0. And, with only a few minutes left on the clock in the opening stanza, it appeared the Roosters would be kept scoreless in a first half for the third time in the last month.
However, when Joseph Suaalii rose above Josh Addo-Carr to make it 10-4 at the break, the momentum seemed to have shifted.
Yet the Roosters couldn’t take advantage of a gutsy, yet limited Canterbury side. Their attack failed to fire and, despite a late scare, the Bulldogs held on to produce a massive upset.
Robinson's side are putting far too much pressure on themselves by having to constantly chase games.
There’s plenty of fight in the Bulldogs
The side anchoring the bottom of the table hadn’t beaten the Roosters since Round 17, 2016.
After a strange week, filled with tales of Phil Gould giving the team a bake and then running them through a few drills, most people expected a Bulldogs loss.
But Trent Barrett's men bucked the trend and proved they still have plenty of fight left in them yet.
This is perhaps best epitomised by Josh Addo-Carr. The winger is clearly up for the fight, as he notched another double.
The first was a clever scoot out of dummy half, after he recognised Joey Manu had been caught at marker. Then, he read Sam Walker's play off a scrum to intercept one of his trademark looping passes, before racing the length of the field.
Cowboys' goal-line defence has drastically improved
One of the Cowboys' weak links since the start of the year has been the defence on their own line. But gradually, they've managed to fix it over the last few weeks.
Against the Eels, their recent improvement was there for all to see. There was no dummy-half run like we saw from Tom Starling who went over untouched, or a solo effort from Josh Curran who busted through multiple tackles from close range.
Instead, the Cowboys limited one of the best attacking sides to a single try, despite them being camped on their line (to the tune of 41 tackles inside the attacking 20m zone).
The Eels simply had no answers for the Cowboys' resolute goal-line defence.
Tigers still lacking the killer punch
The Tigers did just about everything they had to to win the game against the Dragons on Sunday - the one thing missing was the killer punch.
Michael Maguire's side was on the right side of the possession, completions and field position but when it came to crossing the line, their execution and decision making was severely lacking.
On the surface, they weren't playing a poor brand of football, they just had no points to show for it.
Although, credit must be paid to the Dragons defence, which was relentless all night and ultimately what won them the match.
Maguire admitted that although his side had shown vast improvements over the last three weeks, the loss to St. George Illawarra still showed they have a lot to learn about icing a result.
"We won a lot of areas in the stats but it was just the little moments... we weren't able to ice those tries that were available to us," the Tigers coach said.
"There were key areas there, and when you're playing in games like that it can come down to one play, and one little moment, and (the Dragons) were able to capitalise."
Sullivan proves his worth as a Dragons super sub
Jayden Sullivan was a big difference-maker in the Dragons' six-point win against the Tigers and continues to highlight himself as a viable utility option for Anthony Griffin.
Sullivan enjoyed two impressive stints at dummy-half and scored an outstanding second-half try from a dart out of dummy-half that would ultimately hand his side victory.
Making the effort from the young halfback even more impressive was the fact he's had limited time on the field this year, after being sidelined with a hamstring strain at the start of the season.
The Tigers threw plenty of traffic at the 20-year-old but despite the limited match fitness he kept up with the speed of the game and read the play in attack beautifully.
With Moses Mbye cementing the fullback spot for now, Sullivan looks to be Griffin's No. 14 from this point forward.
"He ended up playing 35 minutes but he's played very limited football," Griffin said after the 16-12 win.
"He did a great job off the bench tonight. We'll just keep feeding him minutes and keep moving him."
