Round 8, 2024: Manly 32 Parramatta 18

Sea Eagles swoop in second half to dowse Eels fight

The Sea Eagles came swooping home at 4 Pines Park against the Eels, running in late tries to down their rivals in an entertaining 32-18 win.

The game was in the balance until the final moments where the home side pulled away to flatter them on the scoreboard, with Parramatta putting in a much bigger fight than they showed in their loss last week to the Dolphins.

Eels winger Maika Sivo also crossed for a hat-trick after being recalled to the side but will be contemplating his choices after being sent to the sin bin late in the second half as his side were mounting a comeback, with Manly instead able to put the game to bed with late tries.

It was a game with plenty of feeling, with the sold-out crowd not only seeing some good tries, but some heavy defence, with big hits punctuating the play all night.

The Eels were the first on the board with Clint Gutherson kicking a penalty goal, with the opportunity granted after Haumole Olakau'atu was sent to the sin bin for a dangerous tackle on Shaun Lane. The Eels could not capitalise any further on the big forward's absence from the field, with Manly managing to keep the visitors away from the tryline.

The Sea Eagles had the first proper chance to score the first try of the game with Jason Saab attempting to cross in the right corner, but was denied after his leg was over the sideline. Instead, it was the Eels who scored first after not letting a play die, with Sivo finishing off a backline play, after a late offload from Morgan Harper set him up for the first of his three tries.

The Sea Eagles were on the board next, with their try coming from a good Matt Lodge pass out to Luke Brooks, who put in a deft kick to Tommy Talau who dove over the line to score.

Reuben Garrick kicked the conversion to draw the scores level, but they didn't stay that way for long, with Sivo over for his second soon after. The Eels winger put in a strong run to charge to the line after his side cashed in on an offside penalty.

The Eels went further in front when they went in on the opposite corner, with Bailey Simonsson flying over after a line break from Will Penisini set him up. Gutherson wasn't able to convert any of the first half tries, but the Eels still went to the break with a 14-6 lead.

The Sea Eagles needed to score first in the second half, and they did. Skipper Daly Cherry-Evans set up the play with a great dummy and pass out to his right across the face of two players out to Saab, who raced down the sideline before passing back on his inside to Tom Trbojevic to score.

This set the spark for Manly to mount their comeback, with the side posting back-to-back tries after a Nathan Brown pass to Jake Trbojevic put him into a gap, with the lock then finding Cherry-Evans coming up with speed behind him to accept the ball and run over to score. The try put his side in the lead for the first time in the game, with Garrick's conversion getting them out to 18-14.

The action didn't slow down with line breaks and big runs as well as forced errors keeping the game close, but Manly edged further in front to lead 20-14 with a penalty goal after Eels centre Penisini was sent to the sin bin for a professional foul for tackling Tom Trbojevic without the ball as he was chasing a kick and looked to be on his way to score.

The Eels then managed to score a try despite being a man down, with a kick left to bounce and not cleaned up by the Sea Eagles. The scraps were instead picked up by the Eels who went left out to Sivo to get his hat-trick. However, the Eels again could not convert, with Dylan Brown this time having his attempt waved away to trail 20-18 with just over 13 minutes left in the match.

They then undid all of their good work when Parramatta winger Sivo was put on report and sent to the sin bin for unnecessary contact with Garrick's head after completing a tackle.

The Sea Eagles made sure to target his wing and Garrick went over for a try after Olakau'atu put in a strong run to set him up for the first of his two back-to-back tries.

Manly thought they had one more to Olakau'atu, but were denied by the Bunker for being offside. However, they had well and truly done the damage to condemn the Eels to another loss.

Match Snapshot
It was a high-scoring game for the Sea Eagles, with fullback Tom Trbojevic having now scored five tries in his past six games while centre Reuben Garrick has scored 13 tries in 12 games against the Eels.
Although a disappointing loss, young debutant Ethan Sanders had a good game at five-eighth, partnering Dylan Brown in Parramatta's fourth different pairing of the season. The youngster, who is to join the Raiders next year, finished the match with four tackle breaks and was forced to make 33 tackles.
Disciple was poor from both sides, with three sin binnings. Sea Eagles forward Haumole Olakau'atu was sin binned and put on report for a dangerous tackle on Shaun Lane in the first half, while Eels forward Ryan Matterson was also put on report for a tackle on Luke Brooks. Eels centre Will Penisini was sent to the sin bin for a professional foul midway through the second half after tackling Tom Trbojevic without the ball as he was chasing a kick. Parramatta winger Maiko Sivo was also put on report and sent to the bin in the late in second half for unnecessary contact with Reuben Garrick's head after completing a tackle.
At halftime, the two sides were even on 50 percent possession, and both also having the same completion rate percentage of 75%, with Sea Eagles completing 12/16 and the Eels 15/20. Both teams had also made four errors apiece at the break.
At fulltime, the Sea Eagles had 52 percent of possession and maintained their 75 percent completion rate. Manly finished with nine errors and Parramatta made eight. Parramatta gave up 10 penalties, while Manly gave up six.
With his three tries, Eels winger Maika Sivo went to 93 tries, to be third on the club's try scoring list.
Goal kicking proved to be an issue for the Eels, with none of their four tries converted. However, Reuben Garrick was able to convert all five Manly tries and also slotted a penalty goal.

Play of the Game
Sea Eagles skipper Daly Cherry-Evans has been in good form and set up the try to spark Manly's second half comeback. The Maroons captain put on a great dummy and pass out to his right across the face of two players out draw in Sivo and find Saab, who then raced down the sideline before going back inside to the ever-present Tom Trbojevic to score and get the home crowd on their feet.

What they Said
"I won't lie, I was concerned after last week with the lack of effort and how we fell in a massive hole, so initial thoughts are we haven't lost a footy team, they're still there ... we have to decide if it's fulltime all the time with that effort, that courage they we showed, and if we keep doing that, we will fight our way out of it, but I thought in the second half, we probably beat ourselves with a nine-one penalty count." - Parramatta coach Brad Arthur

"(Sivo sin bin was) just stupid, we were right in the game, 10 minutes left, we just got Will [Penisini] back (from the sin bin), last tackle, catch the ball give ourselves a chance. Silly things in the game are really hurting us, missed tackles, penalties against us, you can't do that in NRL games, doesn't matter who you are versing." - Eels captain Clint Gutherson

"First half, you have to give Parramatta some credit, they disrupted how we wanted to play footy. They stayed in the tackle, they jumped off the line there defensively; (so) when we got together at halftime, we came up with a tactical change or two and I thought the guys executed really well in the second half. To win that second half 26-4 was I thought a really good job by the boys." - Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold

What's Next
Next week, the Sea Eagles will again be at home, hosting the Raiders on Friday night.

Parramatta have the bye in Round 9.

NRL.com