Daly Cherry-Evans boots Manly Sea Eagles to shock win over Cronulla Sharks
IT was the golden-point left-foot field goal that put the boot into Cronulla’s top-four chances — and possibly their premiership tilt.
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IT was the golden-point left-foot field goal that put the boot into Cronulla’s top-four chances — and possibly their premiership tilt.
In an extra-time thriller, Manly captain Daly Cherry-Evans landed the decisive one-pointer in the 82nd minute to give his side an amazing 33-32 win at a stunned Southern Cross Group Stadium on Sunday.
The two points lifts the Sea Eagles two points ahead of bottom-placed Parramatta and North Queensland with four games to play as they fight to avoid the club’s first wooden spoon in 71 years.
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The Sea Eagles were brave on Sunday after last weekend’s crushing late loss to Penrith at Lottoland.
Manly coach Trent Barrett leapt from his coaching box seat, raised both arms in triumph and screamed with joy as Cherry-Evans landed the pivotal field goal to claim the Steve Rogers Cup.
The scores were locked 32-all at full-time after Manly scored through forward Joel Thompson just six minutes from full-time.
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Cherry-Evans fluffed a field-goal attempt in the 78th minute to win the match but came back to hit the matchwinner four minutes later.
Defeat may come back to haunt Cronulla, who remain locked in sixth position on 26 competition points, with a huge match against Melbourne on Sunday at AAMI Park.
“We need to start winning if we want to crack that top four — we need to string some games together,” Sharks skipper.
“And it’s got to start soon. Now. Next week.”
After Melbourne, Cronulla have a favourable run home with matches against North Queensland (away), Newcastle (home) and Canterbury (away).
Cronulla will need to be tidier in defence heading into September’s big games. The Sharks missed 36 tackles on Sunday.
The match was probably an aberration but conceding 33 points to a wooden spoon candidate didn’t please coach Shane Flanagan.
“In theory, if you win your next four games you’re a chance (to finish top four) but if we play like that, we’re not going to win our next four games — it’s pretty clear,” Flanagan said.
“We just have to concentrate, the old story, week to week. We can’t be looking too far ahead.
“Sides at the end of the year (like Manly), some people might perceive have nothing to play for but they have plenty to play for. They are dangerous when they’re in that mood, especially with some quality players in there, they are going to score points.
“We shouldn’t have allowed them to score the 33. We should have been better than that. Defensively, as a club, we don’t let 33 in. Good luck to them, they deserved to win.”
Sharks star Val Holmes sprayed a relatively simply penalty goal attempt in the 71st minute which would have given Cronulla an eight-point lead.
Cronulla had two tries denied in the first half through obstruction — decisions Flanagan supported.
“Maybe if we kick that goal, it changes their mindset, we go eight points ahead and we probably win the game,” Flanagan said.
“We can’t put it down to the goal kick. The two tries, the attention to detail on our behalf was poor. They were no tries by the letter of the law; frustrating in that sense.”
Manly scored during the opening set of the second half when fullback Tom Trbojevic leapt high to catch a Cherry Evans’ bomb and score. It was spectacular stuff.
Cronulla hit back just six minutes later when prop Aaron Woods scored his first try for the Sharks. It went try-for-try. There were 52 points scored inside 50 minutes.
And most were soft tries too, gaping holes, one-on-one misses.
“It is a big loss for us,” said Gallen, who ran for 183 metres yesterday. “It was a tough game. When you play teams like that at the back-end of the year, who have a pretty good roster, there is no pressure on them.
“They have nothing to play for and when there’s no pressure on teams with good players, they can pull things out and score tries like they did today.
“Pressure in footy is an amazing thing — when there’s none on a team, anything can happen for them, as it did today. We made it hard for ourselves as well. To let 33 points in, it’s a bit disappointing.”
The first half was highly controversial due to the performance of NRL match officials.
Referee Henry Perenara blew 15 penalties inside the opening 35 minutes to ruin any chance of a spectacle. He just kept blowing the whistle, there were 23 by full-time.
Aside from the two disallowed tries, Cronulla also had Woods sin-binned. Each decision sent the noisy Sharks crowd into a rage. Perenara was loudly jeered from the field at halftime.
“It (Woods’ sin-binning) was a strange one,” Flanagan said. “It was in the middle of the field. Players probably aren’t expecting sin-bins of that sort in the middle of the field.
“They are usually when you’re defending your tryline for repeated offences. Anyway, on to next week”
Sharks centre Jesse Ramien scored with only seven seconds of the first half remaining, Manly ahead 20-18 at the break.
MANLY 33 (S Lane 2 J Thompson T Trbojevic D Walker tries D Cherry-Evans 6 goals D Cherry-Evans field goal) bt CRONULLA 32 (W Graham V Holmes M Moylan J Ramien A Woods tries V Holmes 6 goals) in extra time at Southern Cross Group Stadium. Referee: Henry Perenara, Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski. Crowd: 13,273