NRL 2024 Finals: Manly Sea Eagles score all-time comeback to bury Canterbury Bulldogs 24-22

Tom Trbojevic needed a needle before the game and at halftime on his troublesome shoulder injury, but the Manly superstar got the job done and has reassured fans he’ll be ready for Saturday’s semi-final against the Roosters.

It took more than 4000 days, but Luke Brooks can now add finals winner to his CV after a stunning Tolu Koula try capped a crazy comeback as the Sea Eagles ended Canterbury’s season with a 24-22 win.

Brooks has waited years for this moment, and he deserves a beer after a champagne bit of footy from Koula who had the travelling Manly fans in raptures.

The Sea Eagles looked slow and out of ideas for much of the contest, but they burst into life in the second half when Brooks and skipper Daly Cherry-Evans combined for a scrumptious scrum try.

That gave them hope, but Koula and Reuben Garrick’s conversion into the wind gave them the lead as the speedy centre got the ball near halfway and danced through the defence to score the most important try of his career despite only having one boot on after the other one was ripped off earlier in the set.

“I was pretty happy. It was a pretty fair try,” coach Anthony Seibold said.

“He’s a very gifted athlete, a very quick young guy. To do it on this stage in front of 50,000 fans, that’s a really special finals try.”

Tom Trbojevic echoed his coach’s praise, labelling Koula’s try “a special play”.

“Probably fair to say they were (the better team) but Tolu comes up with a special play and we just kept fighting,” Trbojevic said.

“That is what we do want as a team to keep fighting to the end. Tolu comes up with a special play and we win it.

“It was 10 minutes to go and we were behind and chasing the play, so we had to come up with something. I didn’t do much in it.

“Tolu, what a run, what a player.”

They were far from their best but sometimes you just need a bit of luck in the finals, with the Sea Eagles to take on the Roosters next Saturday with the winner to face Melbourne in the preliminary final.

Luke Brooks finally has his first finals win. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

TURBO QUESTIONS ANSWERED

What made Manly’s win even more remarkable was that superstar fullback Tom Trbojevic was nowhere near his best as he appeared troubled by the shoulder injury that saw him miss the round 27 loss to Cronulla.

Trbojevic needed a needle before the game and at halftime, with the former Dally M winner only making 144 metres as the Bulldogs did well to contain him.

“Obviously it is a sore injury,” Trbojevic said after the game.

“If felt better in the second half - I am not sure how it looked. It is fine. They are just sore injuries - ask anyone who has had one.

“It’s all good. It will be fine.”

Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold insists Tom Trbojevic will be fine for Saturday’s semi-final against the Roosters.

Trbojevic missed the final round of the season due to a grade 3 AC joint injury he suffered against Canterbury a fortnight ago, but the club was adamant from the moment it happened that he’d be fine for Sunday’s elimination final.

“He did get another needle at halftime, but that was always planned,” Seibold said.

“He did land on it in the first half but you saw that he probably got a bit more involved in the second half.

Tom Trbojevic rips through Bulldogs

“He’s fine. He’ll be right to go again.”

He made an early error from a kick that saw the Bulldogs score a minute later and wasn’t able to threaten in attack, but he should be better with another week to recover.

“We’ve only got a six day turnaround so we’ll review and do medicals tomorrow and do some recovery,” Seibold said, unsure whether Jason Saab will be right to return from an ankle injury.

“He can move and run, but we’ve got to see how much training he does on Wednesday.

“We won’t do a whole heap on Wednesday. We’ll get what we need to get done in prep for the Roosters and then we go again. Turbo will be a part of the plan.”

It was also a tough finals initiation for Lehi Hopoate who set up a crucial try before halftime for Ethan Bullemor but struggled to make metres and came up with a poor error as they attacked the line.

Tom Trbojevic struggles with a shoulder injury. Picture: Fox Sports

DOG OF A DAY

They waited eight years to make their finals return, and in the end it was a few minutes of Manly magic that ended one of the fairy tale stories of the 2024 season.

A crowd of 50,741 turned Accor Stadium into a sea of blue and white as the Bulldogs looked to extend their season after a couple of uncharacteristic losses in recent weeks, and while they were the better team for most of the year, not all stories have happy endings.

They led with 10 minutes to go but just lacked the polish when they needed to chase points at the end, with Matt Burton sending a couple of two-point field goal attempts agonisingly short after some sloppy lead-up work around the ruck.

“I don’t know if we were the better side, but I certainly felt like we were playing well,” Cameron Ciraldo said.

“We came here with a really clear plan and I felt like we were executing it for really long periods of time. We knew we weren’t going to win every moment, but we probably lost a few too many there, and they were big moments.

“We probably got written off after the last two weeks but we knew that wasn’t us.”

It was a devastating way for their season to end, but they have the players, the coach and the belief to build on this going forward, with their smaller pack dominating Manly’s middles after they were bashed a fortnight ago.

The only questions now are what they do with Josh Addo-Carr and how much of a distraction his alleged actions were during the week.

Tolu Koula celebrates his matchwinning try. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

A BITTA CRITTA MAGIC

Cooper Cronk’s move to the Roosters is going to be hard to top, but it’s already looking like Stephen Crichton’s decision to head to the Bulldogs will go down as one of the best bits of recruitment we’ve ever seen.

Crichton has always thrived on the biggest stage for Penrith, NSW and Samoa, and the Canterbury captain didn’t disappoint in his first finals appearance for the blue and whites.

The grand final try-scoring machine got his customary post-season try when he chased hard to ground a Matt Burton kick, he smashed Lehi Hopoate into the in-goal to force a repeat set and batted on a kick for Jeral Skelton to score.

Crichton wasn’t the only former Panther to give it his all, with Bulldogs player of the year Viliame Kikau having a monster afternoon with and without the ball.

The Fijian wrecking ball was put on report early for a shoulder charge on Lachlan Croker but then inflicted more damage later in the first half when he trampled several defenders as he ran 35 metres to score a stunning solo try.

That was after he set up lifelong Bulldogs fan Jacob Kiraz for the opening try, with Kikau charging down a kick in the second half before he whacked Trbojevic to check if his shoulder was fine.

Their influence on the team will only grow in the off-season.

Originally published as NRL 2024 Finals: Manly Sea Eagles score all-time comeback to bury Canterbury Bulldogs 24-22