Manly roast Ricky’s Raiders after sin bin opens the floodgates as Garrick scores FOUR

The Sea Eagles have beaten the Raiders 40-12 after scoring four tries while Canberra prop Corey Horsburgh was in the sin bin for a professional foul.

A glut of first half possession for Manly and a horror ten minutes for Canberra’s Corey Horsburgh and Kaeo Weekes was the catalyst for a slaughter at the hands of the Sea Eagles at 4 Pines Park on Sunday night.

With more 75 percent of possession in the first half, Manly ran riot to hand the Raiders their first loss of the season with a 40-12 shellacking that included 28 points for Reuben Garrick alone.

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But the win came at a cost with hulking front rower Taniela Paseka suffering a ruptured Achilles that will see him miss the remainder of the season.

Manly coach Anthony Seibold was pleased with his team’s early.

“I thought it was that really good performance and we got some rewards the back end of that first half, and early in the second half, it’s probably off the back of the work that we put into the Raiders, field position and possession,” Seibold said.

“And as I said, it was good to get some rewards to back it up.”

Seibold also confirmed the worst for Paseka.

“I think he’s booked in for an operation tomorrow, which is really disappointing for Taniela and him personally, and his family and us as a club, because he’s been our starting front rower since I’ve been at the club, and someone that we value on and off the field, so he’ll be missed but he’ll have the operation and we’ll make sure that we get around him and look after him.”

Canberra’s goal line defence had been resolute through the first quarter of the match, repelling wave after wave of Manly’s red zone attack but with less than 25 percent of the ball, something had to give.

First Horsburgh cost the Raiders a Seb Kris try in the 20th minute with an obstruction and the inform front rower was again the villain a minute later when he was sin binned for a professional foul defending his own line.

Manly capitalised two minutes later, opening the scoring when Garrick bulldozed his way over out wide before converting.

Less than three minutes had passed and Manly had a second when Ethan Bullemor pounced on the ball in the in goal after Weekes fumbled a Daly-Cherry Evans bomb and then Jamal Fogarty made a meal of his attempt to ground it.

Bullemor had a double a minute later after Clayton Faulalo pressured Weekes into another spilled high ball and Manly had piled on 18 points in Horsburgh’s first eight minutes in the bin.

Weekes then put the kick off out on the full and with Horsburgh just back on the field Jake Simpkin burrowed over from dummy half to score his first try for the Sea Eagles in his 50th NRL match.

By halftime it was 30-0 and the booming Brookvale crowd of 16,125 were in raptures, the game all but over.

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Despite the scoreline though, some Sea Eagles faithful were still nervous.

In the corresponding match at Brookvale last season Canberra came from 20-0 down to cause a boilover, 26-24, with Hudson Young sealing the unlikely victory with a 76th minute four-pointer. It was one of only two losses at home during the season for Manly.

It seems that Seibold’s side had learned their lesson.

Daly Cherry-Evans controlled the game for Manly, showing no ill effects from the back spasm that forced him from the field late in last week’s loss to the Warriors, while Haumole Olakau’atu was immense, running for 217 metres and making seven tackle busts.

Canberra coach Ricky Stuart refused to be drawn into a comment that could lead to a fine from the NRL but it was clear post game that he took umbrage with referee Grant Atkins’s performance.

“I don’t think there’s a football in the competition that is going to defend those statistics and win,” Stuart said.

“Not a lot of possession, well you keep having six agains against you, you’re not going to get the ball.

“I’m not allowed to talk about the ref but I hope Andrew Abdo has an answer for us all.

“When you look at it statistically, we had to make 220 or 200 and something tackles in the first half to 70. You can’t be ahead on the scoreboard with that.

“When you look at the average play the ball speed, it was just brought to me then, was it something like 3.54 for one team and 3.55 for the other team. So, where’s the inconsistency in the play the balls there. How come we get, I think it was six to one in six agains and then the six agains that go against my poor buggers, I see those tackles every week by certain teams, nothing’s done.

“You tell me, I’m not allowed to.”

PASEKA PROBLEM

Not everything went Manly’s way with Paseka suffering the Achilles midway injury through the opening half.

The giant prop was making a regulation hit up ten metres out from the Raiders line when he slowed and after being tackled immediately called for help.

Speaking on Fox’s coverage, Cooper Cronk said it was a huge loss for the Sea Eagles.

“That’s devastating, not only for Paseka, but Manly for the season,” Cronk said.

“If they want to take down the big teams in this competition they need their forward pack to dominate the opposition to give Cherry-Evans time and space.”

Manly have already been without one of their most experienced middle forwards Nathan Brown so far this season. Josh Aloiai is the obvious replacement for Paseka with Tof Sipley set to be recalled to the 17.

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BAND OF HONOUR

Manly players wore black armbands in honour of June Penn and 12-year-old super-fan Beau Hewitt who both passed away this month.

June is the mother of Manly club owner Rick Penn and grandmother of chairman Scott Penn.

Hewitt, who tragically died from Stage 4 Non-Hodgkin lymphoma on Tuesday, had struck up a close bond with the Manly players, in particular the Trbojevic brothers who made regular hospital visits to be by the youngster’s bedside.

Hewitt’s parents Belinda and Scott, along with brother Tye, were special guests of the club at the game and delivered the match ball prior to kick off.

GARRICK’S FATHER’S DAY

Reuben Garrick and his partner Riley welcomed their first child, a daughter Elsie, yesterday, and the ever-reliable centre capped a massive 24 hours with a point scoring feast, surging to the top of the competition’s point scoring ladder.

Garrick scored four tries and kicked six from seven attempts for a personal haul of 28.

“A big shout out to Riley, my fiance, she’s still up there in hospital at the moment so I’ll have to shoot off back there after this,” he said.

“Tonight was great. We have to give up for the crowd... they give us another leg and we play our best foot here.”

TIMELY TAPINE RETURN

With no ball in the opening stanza, the Raiders were forced to make 234 first half tackles compared to Manly’s 78, putting enormous pressure on their middle forwards led by Josh Papalii, Horsburgh and Trey Mooney.

Fortunately, Canberra will welcome back captain Joe Tapine for next week’s clash with the Cowboys in Townsville, having served a two-game suspension after being banned for a shoulder charge in round one.

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Originally published as Manly roast Ricky’s Raiders after sin bin opens the floodgates as Garrick scores FOUR