Dare to dream: Sea Eagles soaring to top four spot on NRL ladder
With only two rounds of the regular season now remaining, the team many tipped at the start of the season to be in contention for the wooden spoon have continued their stunning form.
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Dare to dream Manly fans. Because even the wily old Des Hasler is struggling to keep his giant-killing Sea Eagles flying under the radar.
With only two rounds of the regular season now remaining, the team many tipped this year to be in contention for the wooden spoon have jumped into the top four after a courageous come-from-behind 18-14 win in front of Canberra’s biggest home crowd of the season.
On an afternoon when the Sea Eagles suffered two serious first-half injury setbacks that knocked Joel Thompson (broken arm) and Moses Suli (syndesmosis ankle) out of the match and potentially the season, a Joey Leilua brain snap turned the match on its head.
Trailing 10-4 in the 51st minute, the Sea Eagles were awarded an eight-point try after Leilua dropped his knees into Reuben Garrick’s back following a long-range intercept try.
The two teams staged a ripping end-to-end battle in the dying minutes but it was the Sea Eagles held on to knock South Sydney out of the top four on percentages.
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At the start of the season even Hasler would have struggled to believe this could be possible after Manly finished 15th last year under Trent Barrett.
But Hasler couldn’t hide his pride after another gutsy performance when his players just found a way to victory.
“If you want to go anywhere in this competition I believe you have got to have that ability to hang in there and hang in there and hang in there,” Hasler said.
Manly has now won eight of its past 10 games and will take on competition leaders Melbourne at Lottoland this Saturday who they beat 11-10 back in round 19.
“We are definite now of making the finals so I think these sort of games will come in handy because the squad is relatively young when it comes to semi final experience,” Hasler added.
“It is a journey and they have worked hard at it. They really wanted to work hard as far as winning back the respect. But at the end of the day the journey for them has been hard work and it is not over yet.”
LEILUA BRAINSNAP
No one ever questions Leilua’s outstanding ability to break a game wide open. But his lack of discipline has been a constant anchor throughout his career and another moment of madness cost the Raiders in this one.
Canberra was in control up until that point with the Sea Eagles really struggling to capitalise on any of their chances.
But that was until Jack Gosiewski swopped on an intercept near his own goal line and sprinted clear before he found a flying Garrick in support.
Garrick raced away to plant the ball under the posts before Leilua recklessly dropped his knees into Garrick’s back well after the ball had been grounded.
It left the referees no option but to award an eight-point try.
Raiders coach Ricky Stuart was obviously not happy but he was not arguing the decision.
“I think it was justified,” Stuart said.
“I have spoken to BJ.”
There was a tough call that went against the Raiders in the first half when an onfield “no try” call went against Jack Wighton after it was ruled he had lost possession.
The replays were hardly convincing and if it was sent up as a try it probably would have been the difference on the final scoreboard.
But Stuart was more concerned about factors in his own team’s performance.
“If you want to keep giving opportunity to good teams they are going to beat you and we gave them too many,” Stuart added.
“I am not taking the gloss off a really, really tough win for Manly down here. They played tougher than us and for longer.”
The Raiders remain in third spot on percentages and take on the Sharks next week in Paul Gallen’s last home game at Cronulla.
INJURIES ROCK EAGLES
The last thing any team needs counting down to the finals is more injuries but it looks like Thompson will be gone for the season with a broken arm and Sulu cold also struggle to get back after a syndesmosis ankle injury.
The good news for Manly is that Curtis Sironen is expected back for this week’s clash against Melbourne.
WHISTLE-HAPPY REFS
It was a pretty solid first half performance from both teams although the match struggled to really find its rhythm due to 16 penalties before the break.
Perhaps the best example of some of the pedantic rulings was when Jack Wighton was penalised for slowing down the play the ball after a cracking shot on Dylan Walker.
Given teams are often allowed to take up to 10 seconds for players to roll off three-man tackles, it just seems absurd a little more leeway isn’t given to dominant one-on-one tackles.
In the end 21 penalties were blown..
MANLY 18 (R Garrick J Trbojevic tries R Garrick 5 goals) bt CANBERRA 14 (J Croker 2 tries J Croker 3 goals) at GIO Stadium. Referee: Ashley Klein, Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski. Crowd: 20,265