Manly’s finals hopes are suddenly on life support – and if the loss to the Wests Tigers was not bad enough, they could be without three forwards next week because of suspension.
The Tigers caused one of the great boilovers at a rocking Leichhardt Oval on Thursday night to triumph 34-26.
The triumph not only moved them level with Parramatta for the time being, it capped a memorable 24 hours for coach Benji Marshall who was inducted into the NRL Hall of Fame on Wednesday night.
Manly only needed to win to secure themselves a spot in the finals.
They now meet Canterbury and Cronulla in the final fortnight, and, all of a sudden, risk missing September football for the fourth time in five seasons.
Haumole Olakau’atu was one of three players sin-binned. His offence was a high shot on fullback Heath Mason.
Olakau’atu was given a timeout as teammate Ethan Bullemor was himself returning from the bin just after the break.
Lachlan Galvin takes on the Sea Eagles.Credit: Getty Images
Later, Corey Waddell was binned for collecting Solomon Alaimalo high, even though most fans at the ground and commentators believed Taniela Paseka was the chief culprit.
Paseka will also be sweating on avoiding any charges from the match review committee.
As well as for their ill-discipline, Manly coach Anthony Seibold will be unhappy with the way his side looked after the ball when they had it.
“You have to give the Tigers credit,” Seibold said.
“We were outplayed, and our discipline let us down. We started really well, we made some fundamental errors. I can handle the errors at the end of the game because we were chasing the game. But we got what we deserved.”
The night proved a horrible homecoming for former favourite son Luke Brooks who was booed for most of the evening.
He kicked out on the full at half-time and spilled the ball with nobody around him in the 36th minute.
If Tigers rookie five-eighth Lachie Galvin wasn’t the best player on the field, Sea Eagles fullback Tom Trbojevic would have been.
He scored three tries and posed a threat every time he ran the ball.
Manly, with Trbojevic, his brother Jake, Daly Cherry-Evans, Olakau’atu and Brooks, need to find more over the next two weeks. Missing the finals this late in the season will be a fail.
The Tigers have the bye before hosting Parramatta.
Marshall said of finishing the year with a rare third straight win: “We’re not happy finishing 16th or 17th. We want to be higher than that. But we accept where we are, you have to identify what you need [to do] to move forward, and we’re doing that.
“You need to celebrate the wins like tonight. It’s our sixth win of the season, and we need to enjoy that.”
