Three years ago they lost out to the Rebels in their bid for Super Rugby survival, now the Western Force have the chance for the ultimate revenge: to deny Melbourne their maiden finals appearance.
By securing a losing bonus-point in their 38-32 defeat to the Waratahs on Saturday night, the Rebels need only beat the Force by four points next Saturday afternoon in Newcastle to leapfrog ahead of NSW into third spot on points differential and, therefore, secure a finals berth.
Matt To'omua's 77th minute pressure-cooker penalty drew the Rebels within the seven-point buffer to secure the precious competition point.
It was an equation that the experienced Wallaby was fully aware of despite the disappointment of going down and not sewing up their spot in the top three with one round left in the regular season.
"Ultimately the season it is, to be fair, we would probably have gone for three there to give us a chance to win anyway," To'omua said on the penalty.
"Happy in the context of it that we got that but ultimately we did get beaten, we lost the shield so we need to win some more trophies because that's pretty disappointing.
"Being pragmatic, we're still in the hunt, we can still make history for our club and that's important."
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The Force have yet to register a win in 2020, but it was only a month ago that the Rebels were forced to Super Time against the men from the West so To'omua knows what they'll be walking into next weekend.
"There's a lot there," he said.
"I tell you what, if they beat us they'll consider it a pretty decent finish to the season.
"That aside, we have a chance to make history for our club and that's all we'll be thinking of.
"If we win that we go through to the first finals that the Rebels have ever done, so that would be pretty huge so we have plenty to play for.
"Yeah, of course, they've got a lot to play for, but there's enough there for us to make some history for our club and we'll be ready for that."
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In 2018 the Rebels fell agonisingly close against the Highlanders in Dunedin and a year later were smashed by the Chiefs to be booted out of finals contention.
Wessels looked a broken man after their embarrassing finish to last season, but the former Force coach says the Rebels have grown as a group.
"Well I'm 37 and that's why I look 50 because of those sort of things," Wessels said.
"But I think we've learnt a lot.
"The resilience of the group.
"As I said, I thought we were outplayed but Matt and the senior guys managed the game ... to get us back into the game and, ultimately, get us a bonus-point which is really important and as a group I don't think we would have done that last year."
The Rebels have been away from home all season because of COVID-19 and Wessels couldn't resist a jab to Waratahs Chairman Roger Davis after having his club's future once again being discussed over the past two months as Rugby Australia attempts to iron out their broadcast and competition structure byond 2020.
"I'm quite pleased with the resilience of the group," he said.
"We're effectively in a quarter-final now.
"I thought the Waratahs were better tonight but we hung in and we did what needed to be done to keep the season alive, and I think in a macro context we've been on the road since June.
"We play a home game in front of Waratahs fans, we've got the Waratahs banner behind us, we've had no home games, we couldn't be more in Waratah country.
"I think if we played more in Waratah country we would have to play in Roger Davis' lounge-room, so I'm pleased with the guys that under those difficult circumstances hung in and we've got our own destiny in our hands which is good."
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