Liam Davis' magnificent triple century and New South Wales' woeful batting display saw Western Australia move to the top of the Bupa Sheffield Shield table with a record-breaking outright win on Sunday.
The Warriors won by an innings and 323 runs inside three days after spinner Michael Beer took a career-best 7-46 to help dismiss the Blues for just 146 in their second dig.
WA's biggest ever innings victory will see them finish the third last round two points clear of second-placed Queensland unless the Bulls earn an unlikely outright win over Tasmania on Monday.
The result was also NSW's biggest loss by an innings since 1926-27 and it came largely due to their internationally experienced players failing to fire, typified by Brad Haddin's pair of ducks in a performance sure to increase the pressure on his Test spot.
Just like in his first innings knock of 21, dual Allan Border Medallist Shane Watson made a positive start in his long-awaited return from injury but fell for 31 in his second dig to go with the 1-16 he took off 12 overs while appearing well below full fitness.
But Davis' man-of-the-match effort stole the show, with the 27-year-old putting together majestical 303 not out which made him just the second WA player to reach 300 in the Shield behind only Geoff Marsh and took him top of the competition's run-scorers for 2011-12.
Davis, who survived three dropped catches including one on 299 to become the 14th person to score a Shield triple century, blasted 41 fours and six sixes over more than 10 hours at the crease and put together a 379-run stand from late on Friday until early on Sunday with Adam Voges (178).
The experienced duo broke multiple records, in addition to putting on WA's third biggest partnership in the competition and the ninth largest stand for any state, in an effort which put the Warriors on course for their first Shield final appearance since 1999.
That partnership allowed the hosts to declare at 3-560 and the Blues fared little better in response than they did when scoring just 91 in their opening dig.
Their top order again made a decent start - taking the score to 1-54 - before losing 5-19 including prized scalps of Watson, Haddin and Usman Khawaja (17).
Haddin was at the crease for only 12 balls in the match but he was far from the only struggler as Beer ripped through their middle and lower orders with an impressive display to wrap up the game with 16 overs left on Sunday.
The NSW team had a combined 132 Tests of experience but it was nowhere near enough to avoid a loss which left them with no hope of escaping a bottom-two finish.
WA's dominance was made even more remarkable by the absence of captain Marcus North, who needed surgery to repair a dislocated finger he suffered on Friday and is expected to miss the rest of the season.
New South Wales 1st innings 91
Western Australia 1st innings
Robinson c Copeland b Watson 31
Davis not out 303
Marsh c Smith b Copeland 14
Voges c Haddin b Hauritz 178
Birt not out 21
Extras: 13 (0b, 6lb, 0nb, 7w)
Total: 560 (3 wickets dec; 171 overs)
FOW: 1-75, 2-105, 3-484
Bowling
Copeland 23 - 5 - 90 - 1
Lalor 27 - 5 - 94 - 0 (5w)
O'Keefe 46 - 14 - 88 - 0
van der Gugten 22 - 2 - 111 - 0 (2w)
Hauritz 22 - 6 - 95 - 1
Watson 12 - 6 - 16 - 1
Smith 17 - 1 - 55 - 0
Rohrer 2- 0 - 5 - 0
New South Wales 2nd innings
Hughes b Hogan 10
Watson c Voges b Beer 31
Khawaja c Ronchi b Coulter-Nile 17
Smith c & b Beer 22
Haddin c & b Beer 0
Rohrer c Marsh b Beer 0
O'Keefe c Ronchi b Rimmington 1
Hauritz c Voges b Beer 44
Copeland c Birt b Beer 0
Lalor c Davis b Beer 9
Van der Gugten not out 12
Extras: 5 (0b, 2lb, 1nb, 2w)
Total: 146 (10 wickets; 51.3 overs)
FOW: 1-28, 2-54, 3-54, 4-62, 5-68, 6-73, 7-90, 8-90, 9-112, 10-146
Bowling
Rimmington 12 - 2 - 36 - 1 (1nb, 1w)
Hogan 14 - 5 - 38 - 1
Coulter-Nile 9 - 3 - 24 - 1
Beer 16.3 - 6 - 46 - 7 (1w)
