Otago threw the form book out the window, defeating previously unbeaten Wellington 36-21 at Carisbrook on Saturday night.
The home side scored five tries in the second half to take back the Mike Gibson Memorial Trophy for the first time since 2002.
"We've been threatening to do that all year. We had some young guys in the team and they were keen to make a difference. There was a bit of emotion around and a bit of courage shown," Martin said.
"There was plenty of determination out there with a lot of flak flying around from the media this week.
"We were more than capable of putting on that sort of show. We did it in the first half against Taranaki and the second half against Bay of Plenty."
Otago scored 33 points in the second half to score its first win since August 21.
It ended up 10th in the table in a logjam, one point away from the quarterfinals.
It won four games, drew one and lost five.
In the quarterfinals, Canterbury hosts Tasman on Friday night while Wellington takes on Taranaki in Wellington on Saturday at 5.05pm followed by Bay of Plenty against Southland at Mt Maunganui at 7.35pm.
Hawkes Bay plays Waikato for the second year in a row on Sunday.
Auckland had the chance to get into the quarterfinals yesterday but lost 21-13 to Northland and finished 11th.
Martin said Otago was very competitive at the breakdown which helped bring some continuity to the game.
"We were just more aggressive and the team just had to show more energy. But that has a lot to do with confidence. The players started to grow in confidence and come into their own."
He told the side at half-time that even though it was down 14-3, to hang on to the ball and not kick it to Wellington which would have enjoyed having more ball.
Otago captain Craig Newby had his best game of the season, and Martin said he was always going to play well.
The Otago captain was the last player off the field on Saturday night, signing autographs for 45min and giving his socks away to fans.
Martin had high praise for his young midfield backs, Andrew Parata and Dan Snee, who both only made their first-class debuts for Otago last weekend.
"I thought they had outstanding games. They were up against a pretty sharp combination out there and then Ma'a Nonu came on. But they just kept on making the tackles and muscling up."
He said winger Karne Hesketh deserved his two tries and was sharp on attack, but that all started with the tight five laying a foundation and securing the ball to attack.
Wellington coach Jamie Joseph paid tribute to his former side, saying he expected and got a spirited effort from Otago.
"There was a lot of inexperience in the Wellington backline, and it made a lot of unforced errors, which Otago capitalised on," he said.
"I thought they were hungrier than us and the hungry man gets the ball," Joseph said.
"The Otago team probably played their best game of the season. I take my hat off to them. I expected it. I played eight years down here and I know what would have been going on in those training sheds playing for the Mike Gibson Memorial."
He said his side made oodles of errors and was hard-hit by injury, with prop Neemia Tialata leaving the field after 30min with a sore knee.
He rejected the talk of fielding a weakened side, saying the team was picked with this game in mind.
It was a game the team wanted to win.
