By the 30th minute, Jock Madden’s afternoon had the shape of a familiar Wests Tigers story. His side had somehow scored three tries in eight minutes against the competition’s form team, and he had missed the conversion after every single one of them.

Six points left on the grass. Api Koroisau took the kicking tee off him. Forty-nine minutes later, Madden lined up a field goal in the 79th minute at Allianz Stadium and won the game.

The 25-24 result is the upset of the 2026 season and possibly the most consequential single point kicked all year. The Tigers arrived as huge outsiders with an eight-game losing streak and no finals stake whatsoever. They left having detonated the top four, the Roosters stay third on 38 points, level with the Warriors and Penrith but marooned behind them on differential, with two rounds to find another way to the top of the ladder.

What made it remarkable was not the scoreline but the refusal to give up. Alex Twal was gone with a head knock inside the first minute. Billy Smith scored for the home side after three. Every ingredient of a Tigers capitulation was on the table, and for once nobody reached for it. Patrick Herbert, the journeyman centre whose signing barely registered, produced three try assists in eight minutes, setting up a Jeral Skelton double either side of Tony Sukkar’s close-range effort.

Koroisau then scored the fifth try after starting the move himself, looping to the left edge, sending it through Solomone Saukuru and Junior Tupou, and arriving back in support to finish it. He converted his own try and landed a 40/20 for good measure. Benji Marshall’s captain played the second half like a man auditioning for something.

The Roosters, to their credit, hauled it back. Robert Toia crashed over, Sam Walker scored in the 72nd after Mark Nawaqanitawase had the presence to offload, and Walker’s penalty goal levelled it inside the final five minutes. Trent Robinson’s side had the ball, the momentum and the crowd. Then Naufahu Whyte threw an offload nobody asked for, Victor Radley was ordered off for a head injury assessment, and Madden stepped up in the clutch moment his side needed him most.

There is a neatness to it that borders on cruel. Madden came through at the Tigers, played 14 games in the 2022 wooden spoon season, and was shipped to Brisbane where he made five appearances in a grand final year without featuring in a single finals game. He returned in 2026 on a two-year deal as insurance, behind Jarome Luai and Adam Doueihi in the pecking order, a squad player expected to make up numbers.

He has now kicked the most important point of the Tigers’ season with his least reliable weapon on the day it deserted him.