Former NZ Warriors star Shaun Johnson - now wearing a Cronulla Sharks jersey - has woven a spell over his old team to surely end their already-slim NRL playoff hopes.
The Auckland-based side crashed 42-16 - their third heavy defeat in four outings - to the Sharks in Sydney and now face a virtually impossible task to make the post-season.
Four points outside the top eight, they have only two games remaining, but can't even rely on other results going their way.
From the second minute, when Cronulla centre Bronson Xerri exposed the defence for the opening try, the Warriors were rarely in contention, despite completing all their 11 first-half sets and trailling only 18-10 shortly before the break.
With four minutes remaining in the opening stanza, Johnson put Kiwis second-rower Briton Nikora over to extend the lead into double figures and added a conversion to reach 1000 career points.
Of course, most of those points came in a Warriors uniform, before they showed him the door last off-season and he slammed it on the way out.
Johnson finished the game with seven successful conversions and no misses, while controlling play with 245 kicking metres.
Tries to Patrick Herbert and Isaiah Papali'i gave the Warriors some hope through the first half, but Nikora's try effectively ended their resistance.
Another young Kiwi, Braden Hamlin-Uele, stormed through some weak tackling to open the second-half scoring and not even a trademark corner-flagging effort from David Fusitu'a could bring the NZ side back into the contest.
Wing Josh Morris had a tryscoring double for the Sharks, who began the game in the contentious eighth playoff spot and improved their own prospects.
The Warriors return home for their penultimate game of the season against fourth-placed South Sydney Rabbitohs on Friday, while Cronulla must overcome third-placed Canberra Raiders to continue their charge.
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