Manly Warringah Sea Eagles Coach Trent Barrett said too many errors early in the first half saw his side pay the price in their 28-6 loss at Brookvale Oval tonight.
The match marked the club debuts for Dylan Walker, Apisai Koroisau, Nate Myles, Lewis Brown, Nathan Green, Martin Taupau, Matt Parcell and Siosaia Vave. It was also Barrett’s first premiership match as an NRL coach.
The Bulldogs scored five tries to one in a strong performance in front of a crowd of 16, 512.
Barrett said the drop ball in the first half hurt his side.
“They had over 60 per cent of the footy in the first half. It just showed with the reduction of the interchange if you give a team that much possession, it is going to be hard and you are going to run out of gas,’’ Barrett said.
“We didn’t give ourselves a chance. Too many errors and drop ball coming out of our own end. It was the one area we wanted to be good in was yardage and we gave them four pretty simple shots at our tryline. We gave them too much head start.
“It is a tough competition and I’m realist. I see how we lost that game and we have just got to fix it. There is a long way to go.”
The Bulldogs opened the scoring in the 11th minute when a nice set play down the right side saw winger Sam Perrett score for a 4-0 lead.
It became 8-0 three minutes later when the Sea Eagles allowed a kick to remain in-goal for Will Hopoate to dive on. Moses Mbye converted for a 10-0 lead.
Giant Bulldogs forward Sam Kasiano then fell over the line to score under the posts for a 16-0 lead after 28 minutes.
Things got worse for the Sea Eagles with centre Steve Matai placed on report a minute later for a high shot on prop Aidan Tolman.
The Bulldogs jumped to a 20-0 lead when centre Josh Morris dived over in the right corner in the 35th minute. Taupau was placed on report for a suspected shoulder charge.
Manly Warringah got on the board when winger Jorge Taufua juggled the ball to score in the corner. Jamie Lyon converted to leave the home side trailing 22-6 after 66 minutes.
Nine minutes later, the Bulldogs put the Sea Eagles away when winger Curtis Roma dived over in the left corner for a 26-6 lead. Mbye then converted a penalty goal for the 28-6 scoreline.
