Manly defy the odds and end Paul Gallen's career with shock 28-16 semi-final win
Manly have pulled off an against the odds victory, downing Cronulla 28-16 at Lottoland and ending Paul Gallen's NRL career.
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It's an NRL marketing dream; Marty versus Sam.
Two of the NRL’s heavyweights, Manly prop Martin Taupau and South Sydney’s Sam Burgess, have a date with destiny after the Sea Eagles stunning semi-final salute.
Missing almost $3 million in playing talent through injury and suspension the spare-parts Sea Eagles ended arch-rivals Cronulla’s season with one of the greatest victories in the club’s history.
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On their home ground of Lottoland at Brookvale, an inspired Manly ensured the Sharks horrible record of just six wins in 52 years at the venue continued.
There was no Tom Trbojevic, Joel Thompson, Curtis Sironen, Morgan Boyle or Taniela Paseka, while Taupau was suspended.
Instead players plucked from the Blacktown Workers like Sean Keppie, Lloyd Perrett and Haumole Olakau’atu played with the intensity, heart and passion of seasoned first-graders.
“I just said when they (players) came in, I’m really pleased for the younger boys, Keppie, Moley (Olakau’atu) and Lloydy Perrett,’’ Manly coach Des Hasler said.
“It’s a very proud win in this club’s history.
“We got away to a good start which was important for us and we just built on that.’’
‘Hasler’s heroes’ face South Sydney - where both Burgess and Taupau will return from suspension - in another do-or-die elimination final on Friday night at ANZ Stadium.
On the back of man of the match Addin Fonua-Blake, Manly blasted Cronulla in the opening 20-minutes to lead 18-0 nil, withheld the Sharks mini fight-back after half-time and then kicked clear to seal a spot in the second week of the finals.
“We’ll need to maintain that and go up a notch next week against South Sydney,’’ Hasler said.
“It will be another step (up) for us. We’ll need to be more disciplined but we’re certainly playing on the back of a bit of momentum, which certainly helps.
“They’’ll be hurting after their loss (to the Roosters).
“We’ll get Marty (Taupau) back but they get Sam Burgess as well, so it should be a good game of footy.’’
The Sharks bow out of the finals race - and as a result, end the 19-year career of club legend Paul Gallen.
It was a simple case of one team turning up with the right attitude - and the other without it.
Cronulla’s missed tackle count of 32 with 20-minutes remaining in the match was the greatest indicator of which team ran with more purpose and focus.
“I just told the boys that you can’t win the game in the first 20 minutes, but you can lose it and it was a classic example of that tonight,’’ Sharks coach John Morris said.
“We just compounded error after error.
“I didn’t see any (complacency) before the game tonight, I was just really disappointed with the energy we turned up with and we were totally outplayed.
“It’s good that we made the finals from where came from, but we could’ve done a lot more and that hurts.’’
Rolling the Sharks through the middle, Penrith-bound hooker Api Koroisau benefited from some lazy Cronulla goal line defence to cross under the posts in the 9th minute.
With the home crowd now riding on their back, Manly doubled-down just three-minutes later to take a stunning 12-0 nil lead. When Daly Cherry-Evans put Moses Suli over.
The Sea Eagles were now racing the clock for points, breaking out to an 18-0 nil lead after 19-minutes that not even the most ardent Manly fan could’ve predicted.
The difference between the two sides during Manly’s early try-fest was the kicking game of both halves, Shaun Johnson and Cherry-Evans.
And it was the latter’s well-weighted kick into the in-goal which saw centre Brad Parker score a try through want and desire.
The decision to award the try wasn’t without controversy with the video referee taking an age to decide whether Parker had planted the ball down cleanly.
In the end, he was given the green light.
The Sharks were reeling and needed desperately to stop the flood of points.
It would take the visitors 25-minutes to bridge the gap to 18-4 via some slick ball-movement on the left-edge from Wade Graham to put Bronson Xerri over.
Momentum is everything in rugby league and after threatening to challenge Manly at 18-10 through a try to Aaron Gray, a simple error coming out of their own half cruelled the Sharks.
Fonua-Blake stampeded the Sharks to extend their lead to 24-10 before Brendan Elliott crossed to seal the deal with a try in the 73rd minute.
It lifted the pro-Manly crowd of 15,495 to their feet - and its where they stayed until the full-time siren to salute Hasler’s heroes.
MANLY 28 (B Elliot A Fonua-Blake A Koroisau B Parker M Suli tries R Garrick 4 goals) bt CRONULLA 16 (A Gray J Morris B Xerri tries S Johnson 2 goals) at Lottoland. Referee: Matt Cecchin, Henry Perenara. Crowd: 15,495.
Originally published as Manly defy the odds and end Paul Gallen's career with shock 28-16 semi-final win