Match Report: Round 18 vs Rabbitohs

The team was given warm welcome to Brookie in front of a full house, running out through a guard of honour formed by more than one hundred former players.

After racing out to a 24-0 lead, the home side chalked up a third straight win at 4 Pines Park, and back-to-back wins for just the second time this season.

It was a patient wait before Manly scored the first of their three first-half tries, after being camped for much of the opening 20 minutes inside their own half.

On the back of a repeat set, the Sea Eagles shifted the ball from one side of the field to the other, starting in front of the Hill, and finishing with a try to Reuben Garrick in the 1947 Lounge corner.

Tom Trbojevic, playing right centre for the second game in a row, had his prints all over Manly’s second try in the 28th minute.

Turbo forced a mistake from the Bunnies, chasing and contesting a bomb, before scoring himself on the next set, spearing over from close range to put his team up 10-0 after half an hour.

Two minutes later Turbo popped up on the left to deliver the final pass that saw Garrick score his second in the northwestern corner.  Like his previous attempt, Garrick was unable to add the extra two from the sideline, leaving Manly ahead 14-0 at the break.

It took just three minutes in the second half for the scoreboard to tick over, and it was again Turbo doing the damage, cutting back inside from the left and beating a couple of lazy defenders to score.

Up by 20 points the Sea Eagles started to give the ball more flight, with Daly Cherry-Evans on the end of the next try-scoring passage.

The ball moved swiftly though the hands on the right from DCE to Lehi Hopoate, with Jason Saab then beating the last defender on the outside before sending the ball inside for his captain to score.

Garrick again failed to land the sideline conversion with Manly leading 24-0 after 53 minutes.

The Rabbitohs scored their first points on the hour mark when edge forward Tallis Duncan, who was playing in the centres, took advantage of an overlap to cross on the western side of the ground.

A couple of minutes later Duncan was in again as the Bunnies threatened to mount a comeback, again a simple case of extra numbers on the left to make it 24-8.

It became 24-12 when Isaiah Tass found the line with four minutes left, but damage had been well and truly done.

Tolu Koula scored his team’s sixth and final try of the match in the final minute, scooping up a dropped ball and racing away, after going within inches of scoring on a couple of previous occasions.

The win lifts the Sea Eagles to eighth place on then ladder ahead of next weekend’s bye.