If ever Manly needed an omen to turn their NRL season around, Daly Cherry-Evans delivered it against Canterbury.
Winless after two rounds and down 8-0 early, Kieran Foran inspired a Manly comeback in the wet at Brookvale before Cherry-Evans sent home a 77th minute field goal to claim a 13-12 win.
It was ugly, it was scrappy and Cherry-Evans' field goal was far from his cleanest.
But it was what Manly needed.
And it was just like in round five last year, when the Sea Eagles found themselves in a similar position chasing points after a horror 0-4 start to the year.
On that night, Cherry-Evans also sent over an ugly field goal as the Sea Eagles came from behind to claim an equally scrappy 13-12 victory over the Warriors.
Tom Trbojevic returned the next week, Manly won 36-0 in Mudgee and only dropped four more games all regular season.
The similarities were not lost on the Sea Eagles post-match on Sunday.
"It was one of those ones, I don't care how it went through, as long as it went through," Cherry-Evans said.
"We just had to get the win.
"We'd lost two in a row before this, and as much as you want to take positives out of it, it just gets to the point where you need a victory."
Much like in Gosford last year against the Warriors, Manly were made to work hard for their win and arguably weren't the best team.
The Bulldogs had chances to be more than 8-0 up early, missing both kicks at goal after Manly errors gifted them good ball and Brandon Wakeham capitalised after being called up for Jake Averillo.
Matt Burton also terrorised the Sea Eagles' back three in the air with his towering kicks, while Matt Dufty grubber-kicked for a Braidon Burns try.
But the Sea Eagles then somehow had a 10-8 lead at the break, with Foran putting players into space for tries.
The first helped Trbojevic become the first man to score in front of the new Bob Fulton Stand, before a wonderful cut-out ball allowed Reuben Garrick to cross on halftime.
Nevertheless, Canterbury showed more in defence than they did at any point last year, particularly the 66-0 loss to the same Manly team in July.
They held out for the first 30 minutes of the second half at 12-10 down, as Manly had 26 play-the-balls in their red zone.
"They tried their guts out," Bulldogs coach Trent Barrett said on his return to Brookvale.
"In terms of character and toughness and playing for each other, we have that in spades."
The Bulldogs kicked to level the scores at 12-12 after a penalty but ultimately experience paid off for the Sea Eagles..
Matt Burton put a kick into touch on the full, Manly got the ball in the attacking half and Cherry-Evans slotted the 23rd field goal of his career.
"I'm just disappointed with a few little things we did," Barrett said.
"The try at halftime hurt, it was one we didn't need to give away."
"We just need to learn a few lessons."
As for Manly's destination next week, a return to Mudgee beckons.
