By Robert Dillon
Manly may have lost prop Taniela Paseka for the season after he suffered a suspected ruptured Achilles in Sunday night’s 40-12 trouncing of Canberra at Brookvale Oval.
The towering forward was helped from the field in obvious distress by two trainers after breaking down midway through the first half.
Taniela Paseka was helped from the field.Credit: Getty Images
Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold said Paseka will need scans to confirm the initial diagnosis, but medical staff were prepared for the worst-case scenario.
“I think he’s booked in for an operation tomorrow, which is really disappointing for Taniela personally, and his family, and us as a club, because he’s been starting front row since I’ve been at the club and someone that we value on and off the field,” Seibold said.
“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 coach Ricky Stuart was far from pleased with the lopsided penalty count (10-4 in Manly’s favour) and set re-starts (6-1). The Raiders defied the lack of possession until prop Corey Horsburgh was sin-binned for a professional foul in the 22nd minute.
Canberra’s Corey Horsburgh cops 10 in the sin-bin.Credit: Getty Images
It was still nil-all at that point. By the time Horsburgh returned 10 minutes later, it was 24-0 to the home side.
Stuart said he felt “something’s changed” in terms of refereeing interpretations during the week.
“Well done, they won and we didn’t, but I just don’t get the first half,” he said.
“They’ll tell me it’s correct. It doesn’t matter. They’ll tell me it was correct.”
Centre Reuben Garrick, meanwhile, embarked on a personal scoring spree for Manly on the day after he became a father for the first time.
Garrick scored four tries and kicked six goals for a haul of 28 points, which takes him to the top of the NRL’s individual pointscoring tally after three games.
He came within two points of Manly’s club record of 30 points in a game, which he jointly holds with Matthew Ridge and Ron Rowles.
Garrick, who became a father when his fiancee, Riley, gave birth to a daughter just 24 hours previously, crossed twice in the first half and added a double in the second after Manly emerged from a 20-minute arm wrestle to dominate proceedings.
Canberra absorbed a mountain of pressure before apparently drawing first blood when centre Sebastian Kris broke clear and dived over in the 21st minute.
But the bunker ruled no-try after video replays indicated Horsburgh had obstructed defenders in the lead-up.
Unfortunately for Horsburgh, there was worse to come.
Barely a minute later, the red-headed prop was sin-binned for a professional foul, after making a goal-line tackle while not square at marker, at which point the floodgates burst open.
The Sea Eagles racked up 24 points in his absence and they added another try just before half-time to leave the visitors facing a daunting 30-0 deficit.
Manly’s first try, scored by Garrick from dummy-half, came within a minute of Horsburgh being binned.
Then came two tries that were virtually gifted to the Sea Eagles by hapless Canberra fullback Kaeo Weekes.
In the 27th and 29th minutes, Weekes coughed up towering bombs from Daly Cherry-Evans, and both times Manly interchange forward Ethan Bullemore was on hand to pounce on the dregs and score.
Manly defenders drag Canberra winger Xavier Savage towards the sideline.Credit: Getty Images
In the space of seven minutes, Canberra had gone from level pegging to 18-0 in arrears.
A dummy-half try from Jake Simpkins, and a second try by Garrick, continued the one-way traffic. Adding to Canberra’s worries, Garrick was in pinpoint form with the boot, nailing all five of his first-half conversion attempts.
He made it a hat-trick of tries 10 minutes into the second half, winning the race to ground a Cherry-Evans grubber kick, although his conversion shot was waved away.
Try No.4 came along for Garrick just three minutes later.
In front of 16,125 fans, it took Canberra 63 minutes to post their first points, through Kris. Hudson Young also scored for the visitors, but it was a case of too little, too late.
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