Hi Matt,
Glen's original post I think relates to both the workings of his scope and the observing of objects, so I don't think your question is misplaced here at all.
Galaxies are tricky things to pin. What they ALL require is at least a relatively dark sky to at least catch a glimpse of.
In my last post I mentioned having seen Centaurus A in a 30mm & 50mm finder. A 114 scope is certainly capable to doing so too. What you need to do (I'm assuming you're observing from at least a moderately light polluted sky or better conditions - centre of Gold Coast ain't much good) is use your lowest power/magnification. Cent. A lies nearly due north of Omega Centauri, just a tiny bit east too, not quite the same span as the north-south axis length of the Southern Cross. It can be a right royal miserable task to find sometimes too,
. Take your time. If you are getting frustrated, move away from the scope, take a deep breath and try again. You will ping it. Once you've nabbed it, try changing the EPs on it. Increasing the magnification also increases contrast which can help with pulling out detail in galaxies.
The "5 second pause" can work on galaxies, but they are soft extended objects that don't reveal their individual stars. The 5 second pause works on GCs, and concentrated OCs, as it helps the light of the faint stars accumulate on our eyes a little, and then BLING! they appear.
Galaxies are like nebulae. Their detail is extended, and the best way to observe detail in them is by taking time. They both benefit from an occasional tap to the scope to introduce a little vibration or nudge.
Centaurus A in your scope will show that its "meat patty" is wedge shaped. If your vision is upto the task, it might even show a faint filament of light in the wedge that follows the shape of the wedge too.
Why it shows up easier in a finder than a big scope is an interesting thing. We all say "aperture is king", but the 'king' takes many guises. A big scope collects a lot of light, including a lot of the background sky glow. It also spreads out the light a lot more with its intrinsic increase in magnification. A finder (and binos for that matter) doesn't collect as much background light, and with its small amount of magnification, the light of an extended object like a galaxy or nebula, is much more concentrated in a tiny spot, so it can be much easier to see!
This is one reason why I always pack my binos with my scope when going bush. The scope goes right in on detail. The binos give me the BIG picture that a scope just can't. I've included a couple of my sketches to show what I mean. Both are of the same field around M8 and M20. The first is with an 8" scope at 27X showing approximately a 2.25 true field of view (sketch done from my home in Sydney). The second was done using my 11X70 binos from a dark site, appox. 4.5deg true field of view. The first shows detail in the nebulae, and fainter individual stars, but the second shows a much more extensive glow of the nebulae, and a more mottled structure of the background Milky Way, including a dark nebula that would lie outside of the field of view in the scope.
In the end it comes down to using ALL your scope's capabilities, including exploiting the finder, and taking time. This is all low light level stuff.