September 14, 2008, will remain a day that former NZ Warriors five-eighth Michael Witt never forgets.
Trailing by one point and trapped inside their half... two minutes remaining against the defending champion Melbourne Storm in their first-round playoff... the Warriors' season appeared to be over.
On tackle two, Witt passed to centre Jerome Roptai, who beat Israel Folau on the outside, before finding Manu Vatuvei on the wing.
'The Beast' made a break down the left edge, drawing in three defenders and finding Witt, who raced to the corner, raised the ball in the air and slammed it onto the Olympic Park turf, just ahead of Cameron Smith's despairing lunge.
Through Witt's late-game heroics, the Warriors's 18-15 triumph defied the odds, as they became the first eighth-placed team to defeat the minor premiers under the old McIntyre playoff system to keep their season alive.
During his two years at the club, Witt was known as a lethal goalkicker, landing 121 goals from 139 attempts (87 percent). In 2007 alone, he converted 92.5 percent of his shots, but his famous four-pointer is still remembered as one of the greatest in Warriors history.
Nearly 12 years on, the commentary often does the rounds on social media.
"I still get messages all the time about it," Witt told Newshub from his Gold Coast home. "I got one last night actually - it amazes me.
"Warriors fans are always telling me what they were doing, where they were when the game was played. It's special how it is always brought up.
"They sometimes talk about my goal-kicking, but that try is No.1. I'll be walking through the shops and someone will say 'put the ball down, son', and I start looking around.
"I love talking about it. Some people think i'm a clown, some people think it's cool... Warriors fans love it, Storm fans hate it."
The try capped off a special performance for the Warriors, who were given no chance of winning the sudden-death contest. Melbourne had only lost twice at Olympic Park dating back to 2006.
Over 22 weeks, the Ivan Cleary-coached Warriors had spent just one inside the NRL's top eight, but seven wins in their final nine games - including their last against the Parramatta Eels - saw them clinch the eighth and final playoff spot.
Witt describes the occasion as the fondest memory of his professional career.
"Nobody gave us a chance and we were written off. We were just going to Melbourne to get beat.
"The whole story about how nobody wins in Melbourne, the eighth team had never won before was just special.
"We went with the mind-frame that we were going to win. Our strength and conditioning coach, Crag Walker, had a mindset that we could do it and the team bought into it.
"We decided that when the Storm ran through their banner, we'd stand as a unit in the middle of the field and we were like boxers staring down before a fight.
"When they ran through, I saw Ryan Hoffman look up at us as we stood there, macho and staunch, and they appeared to be caught by surprise."
The Warriors' stand set the tone, as both sides left everything out on the park, but with the clock ticking down, the Storm seemed set to survive a huge scare.
Before Witt scored, commentator Peter Sterling noted that the Warriors looked out of energy and didn't think they'd cover the 75 metres needed to snatch the lead.
Then, when Witt scored, the commentators questioned why he raised the ball in the air before putting it down.
"What's he doing?" exclaimed lead commentator Ray 'Rabs' Warren. "Put the ball down, son!"
A string of trademarks 'no's' from Phil Gould followed, as slow-motion replays suggested Smith was closer to stopping the try than first thought.
In the heat of the moment, Witt didn't even realise what he'd done, as he rushed to place the ball before Smith arrived.
"My whole plan was to run to the corner, stand there, not put the ball down and waste time, because the clock was winding down.
"I knew Adam Blair was chasing me, so I knew if I went to the corner, he'd keep running and I could just stand there.
"I didn't see Cameron Smith and as I turned around, he came towards me, so I had to put the ball down quicker than I planned.
"I didn't realise I raised the ball, but the boys were going 'what are you doing?' I spoke to Ivan afterwards and he thought the play had been called back, so he was sweet, but if I didn't drop it, he might have cut my arms off."
While Witt was the tryscoring hero, he felt his teammates didn't get the credit they deserved for their lead-up work.
"I wanted to get an early ball to Jerome - his feet are like Michael Jackson's, he can beat guys one-on-one and I wanted to give him that opportunity.
"That's the big part of the play not many people talk about... I was the guy who put the ball down, but Jerome created that.
"He found Manu and when he gets the ball, I pushed up the middle and I was lucky it opened up for me."
Another thing Witt remembers clearly was the players' secret beard-growing agreement, similar to NHL players in ice hockey.
"The beards were a big memory," Witt adds. "At the time, we made a pact not to talk about it... nobody would tell anybody why we had beards and just play it off.
"Not one player fumbled, we all stuck strong to that. People had ideas why, but everyone bought it, everyone started showing up with beards."
The week after their Melbourne upset, the Warriors went on to beat Sydney Roosters 30-13, but their season ended the week after that, when they fell to Manly Sea Eagles 32-6 in the Grand Final qualifier.
That defeat would also be Witt's 43rd and final game for the Warriors, with the return of Stacey Jones and the signing of Joel Moon for the 2009 NRL season.
Instead of moving to another league club, Witt opted to switch codes to rugby union and represent Otago at provincial level.
He'd even held talks with members of the All Blacks coaching staff, who liked his style of play, but his switch to the 15-man code didn't pan out as, with Witt playing seven games for Otago, six of them off the bench seeing limited minutes.
Witt had an offer to join the Highlanders wider training squad but instead opted to return to rugby league in the UK where he spent two years with Super League sides the Crusaders [now known as North Wales Crusaders] and a further two at the London Broncos.
There were some good moments, but some tough ones as Witt was forced out of both clubs he represented due to financial issues.
Then after another switch to rugby union fell through, so Witt, his wife and two daughters returned to Australia where St George Illawarra Dragons came calling.
He played four games for the Dragons - including one against the Warriors - before tearing his ACL and later announced his retirement from rugby league. He also had stints with the Parramatta Eels and Manly Sea Eagles.
"There are things I might have changed, but I don't have any regrets," Witt, now 36, told Newshub reflecting on his rugby league career.
"I was never the best player, I managed to play 12 years professionally in four countries, I have a daughter born in New Zealand, a daughter born in London so we lived around the world playing sport, so I was lucky.
"When I look back, we had a successful stint at the Warriors, in 07 we finished fourth and in 08 we nearly made the Grand Final - they were the most enjoyable years of my career. "
Since retiring Witt has been working as a real estate agent on the Gold Coast.
In 2015, he made a brief return to professional sport, this time as a boxer, but only took part in one fight.
Having a professional fight was something Witt always wanted to do, as he had a successful career in the junior ranks before heading down the path of professional rugby league.
"I reunited with my junior coach, trained hard. I won the fight and knocked the guy out early but later that night, my coach's son fought and had a brain bleed and passed away.
"I haven't been back to it. My trainer lost his son through boxing, he's still involved, I still love the fights but it was a reality check."
Another eventful act since retiring came in June last year when Witt broke both his hands fighting off thieves who had broken into his house.
With his two daughters locked inside the family car, Witt fought one man who had a crowbar, while another managed to escape in a getaway vehicle.
"Things could have been a lot worse," he recalls. "I was certainly angry. "When I saw somebody run out of my house I didn't think, I was pretty angry we had an altercation in my front yard.
"They're all locked up and in a bad situation we had the best outcome possible, it's nothing you wanna go through but we're all sweet."
Earlier this year, Witt decided to get involved with rugby league again, joining the Burleigh Bears U18s as an assistant.
They only managed one game before the season was cancelled but that was enough time for some of Witt's past memories to surface among the players.
"They made me feel old because lots of them were not aware I played and a couple of the boys started googling and 08 came up, some of the modelling photos showed up so the boys got a kick out of that, They always heckle me and I love it."
"I wanted to work with the younger kids, we had one game, lost and then the season was cancelled so it wasn't the best start to my coaching career."
Sounds safe to say, the greatest moment of Witt's career will continue to be shared for years to come.
