It has taken a New Zealander to do what no Australian has ever achieved before.
Last night, amid #FeedTheBeast chants, Manu Vatuvei nailed his 145th career try in the same spot where he has scored so many before in Mount Smart Stadium's north-western corner.
Shifting the ball left Tuimoala Lolohea's double-pump floated pass found the big man marauding out on the edge.
Vatuvei had Shaun Kenny-Dowall, Blake Ferguson and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck between him and the line as he propped and then propelled himself towards the stripe. Like countless defenders before, they were no chance of stopping him and The Beast had done it. He'd scored his 10th try of the season and rounded off an extraordinary feat of amassing 10 tries or more in 10 consecutive seasons.
Think of all the glamour scoring machines the Australians have feted throughout history and not one of them has done this. They've all been stymied by form slumps or injury at some point and haven't been able to put together 10 prolific seasons on end since the competition - now the NRL - began in 1908.
It's phenomenal to think a New Zealander has made it, another achievement for the game here at a time when the Kiwis are leading the way as an international force. Put simply, Vatuvei who has shown greater durability and maintained his try-scoring form better than any Australian star from the present or the past.
Unlike many of the other players in the top echelon of try scorers, Vatuvei hasn’t had the benefit of playing in a side that has been a constant force in the competition through winning premierships and making the finals on an almost annual basis; in fact he has been involved in only four finals campaigns and none at all since 2011.
He is now alone in 13th on the all-time list with 145 tries in 206 games and 10 in 12 games this year. Five more tries will make him only the 11th player in history to reach 150 tries.
Not surprisingly, there hasn't been an overwhelming reaction out of Australia. Had it been one of their own, the Australians would have been making all sorts of noise about a feat of this magnitude.
Vodafone Warriors head coach Andrew McFadden had reason to be disappointed after the side's 21-25 loss to the Sydney Roosters on Saturday night but he wasn’t about to let it detract from the scale of Vatuvei's 10 out of 10.
"It's a shame that we couldn't get the points tonight and really celebrate that because it is a huge achievement, a massive achievement," McFadden said.
"Whether it will ever be done again I don't know but certainly it's something Manu should be really proud of. It's something we're proud of as a club."
With Vatuvei contracted to the end of the 2018 season, there’s no knowing what he might achieve next.
If he can sustain his durability and maintain his recent strike rate he is a real chance of becoming only the second player to score 200 tries in the competition (Ken Irvine has that honour). After all he has 43 tries in 54 games since the start of the 2013 season, averaging out to a try every 1.25 games well ahead of his career strike rate of a try every 1.42 games.
Here's the rundown of his record:
MANU VATUVEI | 10 OUT OF 10
2006 | 10 tries in 18 games
2007 | 10 tries in 23 games
2008 | 16 tries in 17 games
2009 | 13 tries in 19 games
2010 | 20 tries in 19 games
2011 | 12 tries in 19 games
2012 | 12 tries in 20 games
2013 | 16 tries in 19 games
2014 | 17 tries in 23 games
2015 | 10 tries in 12 games
Total | 2006-2015 | 136 tries in 189 games
Career | 2004-2015 | 145 tries in 206 games
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