Turbo at the treble to down Dogs, but bunker back in headlines
Not for the first time, Trent Barrett tried to pull the chair out from underneath Manly. This time, he almost got it right.
The day after the upset of the season, Barrett’s battling Canterbury gave everyone a contest when there wasn’t supposed to be one. The glorious unpredictability of the NRL, something we’d all forgotten about, was back.
The $1.01 favourites won – but it took a while.
Manly’s top-four aspirations are still alive; a win against the struggling Cowboys next week will secure a double chance in the finals.
But who would have thought they would have to work this hard against wooden-spooners Canterbury, the same side they embarrassed 66-0 only a couple of months ago?
The only embarrassed Bulldog this week was Adam Elliott, stood down and fighting to save his NRL career after a toilet tryst with NRLW player Millie Boyle. His teammates showed him a thing or two about digging in for a cause.
Tom Trbojevic scores his contentious second-half try.Credit:Getty
The final scoreline made the game look easier than it actually was, Tom Trbojevic’s second-half hat-trick – the first crazily awarded after he appeared to spill the ball under a miraculous try-saving tackle from Jack Hetherington – sealing the result at Moreton Daily Stadium.
The opening Trbojevic try was just the start of the bizarre.
His teammate Josh Aloiai was sin-binned for lashing out with his boot at Josh Jackson trying to free himself from a tackle. The Bulldogs’ Joe Stimson was also penalised for grabbing the hair of Martin Taupau, for all of about three nanoseconds, as he legitimately tried to make a tackle. Jackson Topine scored a late Canterbury try off a kick-off when every Manly player looked at each other and refused to grab the ball. Silly season came early.
It was far from the Manly machine that has rocketed up the NRL ladder in the last few months, but it will do.
Jason Saab also had a double as Manly kept their top-four destiny in their own hands.Credit:Getty
Depending on who you listened to, Hasler was one loss away from the sack after a winless opening month. They were last on the ladder, and Trbojevic’s suspect hamstring was still not right to go. There are many Dally M Coach of the Year contenders, but none have resurrected their season since the Easter weekend humiliation like Hasler.
The Bulldogs led 12-10 at half-time on Sunday, but finished the opening stanza on a sour note when Matt Doorey went down with a suspected ACL injury.
After that, it was the Tom show. Barrett knows better than most the freakish talent of the Manly No.1, and he simply didn’t have the manpower to stifle him.
Trbojevic shouldn’t have had his first try though as Hetherington, again on report for an early high shot on Morgan Harper, wrestled his way under the try-scoring ace, with replays appearing to show Trbojevic momentarily lost the ball before rolling it to the turf. Not for the first time this weekend, the bunker seemed to blunder.
It was the lead the Sea Eagles needed, and one they were never going to surrender, Jason Saab capping his own double when Daly Cherry-Evans’ after-the-siren intercept added underserved gloss to the scoreline.
The furniture will stay with Manly.
MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES 36 (Tom Trbojevic 3, Jason Saab 2, Haumole Olakau’atu tries; Reuben Garrick 6 goals) defeated CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS 18 (Matt Doorey, Jayden Okunbor, Jackson Topine tries; Kyle Flanagan 3 goals) at Moreton Daily Stadium. Referee: Chris Sutton.
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