Jayden Campbell has battled cramp and a bad batch of pickle juice to lead Gold Coast to a 24-16 victory over Parramatta at Robina.
The Titans held on against a late fight-back from the desperate Eels to seal their third straight win and continue their bid to resurrect their abortive NRL season.
A flat Parramatta clearly missed the presence of NSW State of Origin halfback Mitchell Moses on Saturday night.
Gold Coast looked vastly more organised and creative in attack with their halves pairing of Kieran Foran and Campbell, despite ceding the majority of possession and territory to the visitors.
"We just want to keep rolling with the form we have been but I don't think we were at our best tonight by any means," said veteran Foran.
"They played the majority of the game down our end, which is not how you want to be playing footy, so there's a bit of work to do there."
Campbell dazzled on his return from a metacarpal fracture, setting up three tries, making three line-breaks and kicking flawlessly in front of goal.
Fitness was clearly still an issue for the 24-year-old, who struggled with a tight hamstring, but it was unclear whether the remedy was worse than the ailment.
The five-eighth looked physically ill as he attempted to stomach a dose of pickle juice while lining up his fourth conversion of the night, but recovered to split the posts.
The Titans looked like running away with it in the first half, scoring three tries in a 10-minute blitz.
After a silky suite of quick passes set Jojo Fifita free on the right, they worked it back to the left and a looping Campbell cut-out pass found Alofiana Khan-Pereira unmarked.
The prolific winger bagged his second try of the night and 14th of the season three minutes later, Campbell once again displaying exquisitely soft hands in the face of on-rushing debutant Lorenzo Mulitalo to flick the ball through to Khan-Pereira.
"We probably just let them get away with too much at the start," said Parramatta coach Trent Barrett.
"We’ve got a lot of young kids in there and blokes that haven't played a hell of a lot of first grade.
"So in terms of effort I'm really lucky that they actually care because that could've gotten really ugly.
"We need some troops, mate. We got a lot out."
Campbell was as deadly in defence as he was in attack.
A crunching tackle dislodged the ball from Jake Tago, which ended up in the hands of the speedy Phillip Sami, who skipped past three defenders and put Gold Coast 18 ahead.
AJ Brimson was full of creativity in his first game back from a groin injury, but perhaps was trying too hard when he offloaded it straight to Eels centre Blaize Talagi 15 metres from his own try-line, affording Luca Moretti a simple task to get the visitors off the mark.
Second-half scores to Will Penisini and Clint Gutherson added a bit of jeopardy to the final stages but the hosts (18 points) held on to claim their sixth win of the season.
With Foran extending his contract until the end of 2025 earlier in the week and former Wallabies playmaker Carter Gordon also set to join the mix, Campbell’s stellar performance will give Hasler more to think about as he mulls his favoured halves combination for next year.
Meanwhile, Parramatta’s fifth straight loss leaves them on 12 points, alongside fellow bottom-feeders Wests Tigers, and their season all but over.
