Tautau Moga's first Illawarra League try, and an incisive follow-up effort from fellow Devils recruit Dane Chisholm was enough for Wests to open their 2024 ledger at Thirroul's expense on Saturday.
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Pete McLeod's side has been handed the toughest draw to start the season, having been booked to take on the Butchers in Saturday's clash at Gibson Park ahead of next weekend's trip north to face De La Salle.
It makes the two points they banked with a 16-12 win in the season-opener all the more valuable, overcoming a 12-0 halftime deficit to run in three unanswered tries in the second half.
Chisholm's with eight minutes left while trailing 12-10 proved the dagger, the 33-year-old converting his own try for a 16-12 lead the Devils were good enough to defend despite a late push from the hosts.
The composed play with the game on the line was why McLeod was so keen to add the crafty playmaker to his arsenal this season, though he wasn't giving his side's overall effort with the ball a tick of approval.
"He came up with a play at the end, but to be fair to Dane there's a few plays in the first half he'd like to have back," McLeod said.
"We're nowhere near a finished product. We're just starting out in this, it's a new group starting to play together and we need to be better every week.
"Historically we don't play well here, or we don't get the result anyway, so to be down 12-nil at halftime and to come home and win was good.
"Winning smooths over a lot of things that happen in games of footy."
The Butchers got off to the dream start when Steve Marsters snaffled an intercept and raced 80 metres for the opening try barely three minutes in.
The home side took full command of the opening stanza with Marsters' second four-pointer in the 21st minute, taking the handy buffer to the break.
Having been held scoreless for the entire opening 40, it took just four minutes for the Devils to cross in the second, with Braith Lawrence-Foye barging over from close range to cut the margin back to six.
Final-pass errors cost the visitors two more tries before a neat short-side raid instigated by Ryan Barbuto put Lachlan Hurst away down the Devils right flank, with Colby Pellow and then Moga looming in support for try number two.
It put the game on a knife edge at 12-10 with 19 minutes to play before Chisholm's try proved the match-winner.
"I thought in the first half our yardage was pretty good, our on-line defence was pretty good as well," McLeod said.
"If we kept going good in yardage and defending our try line [I knew] we'd give ourselves a chance to come home in the end, but just our attack was poor.
"We gave away a try when we were attacking their line and our attack just wasn't great. We made a lot of errors when we were attacking their line, but you'll take a win round one.
"There's plenty of time to get better, and we're going to have to be better next week."
The Butchers surged late, with three sets on the Devils line inside the final two minutes, but couldn't find an equaliser.
Surrendering a 12-0 halftime lead on their own patch is an awful start to the Butcher's title defence, with coach Jarrod Costello citing ill-discipline with and without the ball for his side's empty second-half.
"We had a chance there late and we weren't able to execute what we were able to execute in the first half," Costello said.
"When we had an opportunity there late the clock probably got to us and we didn't work to a point to do anything we do in training. We just made it up on the run to be honest and that's disappointing.
"We completed really well, we were at 90 per cent in the first half and only made one yardage error. In the second half we just gave away a lot of yardage penalties, so we just kept walking them into the field position.
"You can't give a good team field position, especially when they've got the strike that they've got. They've got a lot of strike, but they're really good defensively too.
"To break them down you've got to be good and we weren't good enough to break them down throughout a set to create a chance there in second half.
"The back end of the game hurt us. In the end it was close, but it's disappointing not to be able to get it done at home."
The Butchers will have a quick shot at redemption when they host Collegians back at Gibbo this coming weekend.
Going 0-2 to start the season at home would land an early blow on the Butchers top-two hopes, but Costello is adamant there were building blocks in the loss.
"I thought we did some things really well," he said.
"They had a lot of field position in the first half and we kept turning them away. They had a lot of sets at us and we were able to stand in front, defend those sets of six and then come away with points.
"It was a really good game for round one, I thought both teams were really tough physically. That was a lot more physical than what we played in our first two trials, chalk and cheese really.
"It's round one, they're a good side, we'll only be better, we'll improve. We'll dust ourselves off and go again."
Elsewhere on Saturday, Dapto fell short of what would have been the bravest of wins after losing key forward Justin Faughlin to a send-off (dangerous throw) just nine minutes into the game.
Despite being down a man, the Canaries were able to level up at 22 apiece with a sideline conversion from skipper Troy Pieper - who also had a double - with 12 minutes left.
In the end, Collies skipper Blake Phillips pulled a seldom-used cross-field kick from his bag of tricks to lay on the 74th minute match-winner for Jay Watling.
De La Salle made it a trifecta for the away teams with a 36-4 win over Corrimal at Ziems Park.
Mitch Jennings
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
