Manly Warringah Sea Eagles suffered a 26-10 loss to the Brisbane Broncos at Suncorp Stadium tonight in the Telstra Premiership Magic Round.
The Sea Eagles made a few changes before the game with Abbas Miski coming in on the wing to replace Jorge Taufua (calf). Curtis Sironen started at five-eighth with Jack Gosiewski starting in the second-row. Api Koroisau moved back to hooker with Manase Fainu returning to the interchange bench.
To make matters worse for the Sea Eagles, the team suffered futher injuries to Moses Suli, Koroisau, and Sipley.
In front of a crowd of 41,388, the Sea Eagles opened the scoring when Koroisau (below) caught the Broncos defence napping to dart over from dummy half in the 8th minute. Winger Reuben Garrick converted the try for a 6-0 lead.
Winger Abbas Miski was denied a try in the 20th minute on an obstruction call after he earlier made a stunning run down the left flank.
The Sea Eagles then had to soak up some pressure on their line midway through the second half on their line but the players repeatedly kept turning up for each other in defence.
Unfortunately for Manly, Abbas was denied a try for the second time when the referee ruled a forward pass in the 33rd minute as the Sea Eagles opened up the Broncos on the left side again.
The Broncos took advantage almost immediately when five-eighth Anthony Milford used his speed to step past Kelepi Tanginoa to score next to the posts. The try was converted by Kotoni Staggs for a 6-all scoreline after 36 minutes.
The Sea Eagles finished the first half at 6-all with centres Brad Parker (HIA) and Moses Suli (suspected broken finger) off. Parker returned for the Sea Eagles in the second half.
The Broncos took a 10-6 lead in the 43rd minute when winger Corey Oates crossed for his 50th try at Suncorp Stadium when a floating cut out pass from full-back Darius Boyd saw Oates dive over in the corner. The try was not converted.
A grubber kick from Milford in the 55th minute saw the ball sit up perfectly in-goal for Matt Gillett to score behind the posts. Staggs converted for a 16-6 lead.
Koroisau left the field three minutes later for Manly with a suspected calf injury. Oates was then denied his second try when he was taken into touch in the 61st minute.
Three minutes later, the Sea Eagles received another injury blow with hard-working prop Toff Sipley taken from the field on a medicab with a suspected knee injury.
Upon resumption, Boyd scored off a Milford grubber kick for a 20-6 lead after 60 minutes. Staggs converted for a 22-6 scoreline with 14 minutes remaining as the Manly injury toll started to take its effect.
Gosiewski then found some open space off a nice backline play to steamroll his way to the tryline in the 69th minute. Garrick failed to convert the try for a 22-10 scoreline.
Forward David Fifita then showed his strength to score out wide for the 26-19 scoreline.
