In a season of closes losses, nail-biting wins and patchy form rarely has Melbourne's belief been tested like it has in 2014.
Friday night's 22-12 win marked arguably the Storm’s most important win in an unbeaten streak over the Broncos that now extends to eight consecutive games.
As has been the case all season, the victory was not without its nervy moments during a tension-filled 80 minutes of football.
After a slow start Melbourne found itself 12-0 up with a finals spot within reach before a Broncos fightback had the scores level with as little as 15 minutes to play.
In need of a hero and with skipper Cameron Smith hobbling with an ankle injury it would be Victorian Mahe Fonua who would don the cape and save the day with two finals-sealing tries.
The icing on the cake was his intercept off a Ben Hunt pass and then blistering run to leave three Broncos opponents for dead.
The 21-year-old may have come through in the clutch but even his teammates though Fonua would be chased down in that run.
"I thought he was actually," said Kevin Proctor.
"I was screaming 'Go!' because he looked like he was running on a treadmill there for a bit and he’s not the fastest centre."
But alls well that ends well and Fonua ran his side all the way into finals football.
It saves the Victorian side from a nightmare weekend waiting to see whether their season will live on.
Instead it is a matter of where they will finish up and after Friday night’s result they find themselves in the top four.
Should the Cowboys fall to Manly and Penrith slip up to the Warriors in the final game of the season an unlikely double chance would be a reality for the men in purple.
Despite what the next 48 hours will bring, the club will rest easy knowing their 2014 campaign will live on for at least one more week.
"It is great knowing we are playing finals and we are there amongst it," said Proctor.
"It would have been a bit different if we had lost and relying of teams to lose games… it's good we know we are in finals and we are a confident team going into it."
It may be unknown where they will end up but with six wins from its last eight games, opposition teams will be crossing their fingers to avoid the Storm come Week One of the Finals Series.
