With Aaron Donnelly lighting up the right edge in a four-try feast, Dylan Lake zigzagging his way to a try double and Matt Baker eating metres in the middle, Gunnedah finally found the form deserved of such a talent-rich outfit.
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Donnelly described the Bulldogs' 52-30 defeat of Narrabri at Kitchener Park on Sunday as the side's best performance of the season.
That it probably was. And it came at an opportune time, vaulting them over Narrabri into fourth spot on the ladder with two regular-season matches remaining for both sides - the Blues now one point behind Gunnedah.
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The Bulldogs had to work hard for the win, as Blues captain-coach Brenton Cochrane delivered another menacing offensive display from dummy half - regularly breaching Gunnedah's defences.
However, once Gunnedah erased a 12-10 deficit when No.1 Lake beat a tackle inside the Blues' 20-metre zone to score, the home side were never headed.
Gunnedah led 30-18 at the break. And then 36-18 in the 46th minute when No.3 Donnelly and Lake combined for a long-range raid down the western side of the field, before Donnelly found Lake with an inside ball and the speedster crossed for his second try.
But in the 52nd minute, Cochrane split Gunnedah up the middle inside the Bulldogs' half and fired a pass for five-eighth Isaiah Adams to scamper over under the posts.
Donnelly then bulldozed his way over the tryline from dummy half for his third try, before the Blues hit back again when prop Adam Suckling crashed over and No.7 Josh Trindall converted to make it 42-30.
Any hope Narrabri had of winning ended when Donnelly rose high to take a high ball on the Blues' tryline and score.
The win was achieved without suspended first-grade regulars Lincon Smith and Blake McIlveen.
On Friday, North Tamworth enforcer Josh Schmiedel told the Leader's LeagueLand podcast that he was bemused a strong side like Gunnedah had been misfiring.
Bulldogs coach John Hickey has in large part blamed the side's form issues on a lack of continuity due to his players' work commitments.
Donnelly said: "We've been struggling a bit for the last 10 weeks. We had a tough week at training. We had a few suspended this week and a couple out through injury. But we got together and had [intelligible] our best performance of the year.
"The season was pretty much over today if we lost. We had to put the onus on ourselves to have a good crack and try and get a win. And we had to do it, so we did it."
Gunnedah 52 (Aaron Donnelly 4, Dylan Lake 2, Nic Altman, Regan Walsh, Matt Baker, Deacon Sankey tries; Matt Brady 6 goals) d Narrabri 30 (Brady Jenkins, Isaiah Adams, Brenton Cochrane, Jess O'Neil, Adam Suckling tries; Josh Trindall 5 goals)
