Rabbitohs v Manly: Luke Keary stars as Souths roll to victory despite Adam Reynolds injury

ADAM Reynolds was forced off the field by a concussion in the first half but the Rabbitohs needn’t have worried, with Luke Keary steering them to a classy win.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 26: Aaron Gray of the Rabbitohs celebrates with his team mates after scoring a try during the round 16 NRL match between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Manly Sea Eagles at ANZ Stadium on June 26, 2015 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

THEY have spent the first half of the season working out ways to sack their coach and keep their star halves.

Now Manly can safely start planning their September holidays to get over their season from hell when it finally ends.

For a club that usually sets its calendar on the grand final date, it’s now all but a certainty that the Sea Eagles won’t be playing finals football in 2015 in the wake of Friday’s 20-8 loss to South Sydney.

And after the year Geoff Toovey and Manly have had, you wouldn’t believe it was another refereeing controversy that probably put the exclamation point on their disastrous year.

After another week disrupted by the ongoing speculation surrounding Kieran Foran’s future, the Sea Eagles were left in the wake of a Rabbitohs outfit who managed to outscore them four tries to two despite playing the majority of the match without their own star playmaker.

Adam Reynolds’ injury plagued year suffered another blow when the No 7 exited after just 24 minutes with concussion after awkwardly hitting his head on Feleti Mateo’s hip.

But in Reynolds’ absence the reigning premiers produced a brave performance to bring down a Manly side that showed plenty of fight but had major concerns over one crucial second half call.

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Peta Hiku fends away from Chris McQueen.

Toovey wanted to blow up at the decision to award a vital 45th minute try to Bryson Goodwin after young flyer Aaron Gray threw a desperate pass as he was hurled over the sideline that appeared to travel forward.

The score at that point was 6-4 in Souths’ favour but referee Matt Cecchin’s “no try” decision was overruled by the video ref.

Toovey, along with everyone who saw it, was baffled why Cecchin sent the decision up to the video ref for confirmation even though the upstairs umpire can’t adjudicate on forward passes.

“You know I can’t comment on that but that is two weeks in a row the referee has gone no try and on vision later they have over ruled it as a try,” Toovey said.

“I can’t comment on it. I can’t explain it. And I don’t know whether they will be able to either.”

Toovey was visibly upset after the media conference but probably managed to save himself a $10,000 fine for moderating his criticism.

“Everyone knows you can’t rule on forward passes but if it hits the ground it is not a pass it is a knock on,” Toovey added.

Manly skipper Brett Stewart said: “I thought I heard (Cecchin) ask for that too (to check for a knock on), that is why I questioned him. But then he said he was questioning if he had his foot on the touchline.”

Asked if it was a decisive moment, Toovey said: “It hurt us last week. It definitely hurt us a lot more this week that is for sure in such a close game.”

With Manly still stuck on the bottom of the NRL ladder on 12 competition points, last night’s loss means they will have to win at least eight of their remaining 10 matches to have any hope of making this year’s finals series.

“We have got to start winning some games, it was important for us to win tonight,” Toovey said.

“Every game is really tough. They were just a bit too good for us tonight but, again, I was very proud.”

As disappointing as the loss was for Manly, it was hard to take anything away from Souths’ performance that answered their embarrassing loss to the Wests Tigers prior to the bye.

Up front George Burgess made the most of his return to the starting side with a man of the match effort while Luke Keary bobbled one first half try but scored a vital four pointer that closed out the win.

Rookie winger Aaron Gray also had another night to remember with two more tries taking his tally to nine tries from six games.

Michael Maguire said: “It was a big turnaround in a couple of weeks.

“Obviously our defence was much improved.

“The boys fought quite hard for a long period of time down on our own goal-line.

“I think there were times there where we had to face nearly 20 to 25 tackles in a row and we were able to hold them off because they threw plenty at us.”

Maguire was also proud of the way Souths again managed without Reynolds who he said should be back for Friday night’s game against Penrith.

Ben Lowe attempts to break a tackle from two Manly defenders.

“(Reynolds) will be right,” Maguire said. “He will aim up next week. He is okay.

“He actually said that he felt okay to possibly come back on but we abide by what we need to with the concussion rules and that wasn’t a

problem.”

The match also marked Glenn Stewart’s long awaited return from injury against his former club and Stewart wasted no time making an impact with a bone-jarring shot on his good mate Foran whose week went from bad to worse.

But while powerful winger Jorge Taufua also monstered Dylan Walker with classic bell-ringer, Steve Matai out did them both with his crunching hit on Dave Tyrrell that will go down as the hit of the season so far.

Matai blindsided the tough Rabbitohs prop with a hit that everyone at the ground saw coming accept Tyrrell who should consider himself lucky he could even make it back to his feet.

SOUTH SYDNEY 20 (A Gray 2 B Goodwin L Keary tries I Luke 2 goals) bt MANLY 8 (P Hiku S Matai tries) at ANZ Stadium. Referee: Matt Cecchin, Henry Perenara.

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Originally published as Rabbitohs v Manly: Luke Keary stars as Souths roll to victory despite Adam Reynolds injury