The Sea Eagles have been in free fall since the skipper’s big announcement.
Fears that the Daly Cherry-Evans saga could derail Manly’s season look to be spot on after another disappointing display from the Sea Eagles captain against the Dragons on Thursday night. St George Illawarra held their nerve to close out a 20-18 win that saw multiple players leave the field for head injury assessments (HIAs) and Sea Eagles forward Toff Sipley sin-binned for a second half hip-drop tackle.
Manly coach Anthony Seibold questioned the NRL’s scheduling that saw his side play a third game in 11 days after Nathan Brown (shoulder), Jake Trbojevic (concussion) and Tommy Talau (leg) failed to finish the game. But the Sea Eagles only had themselves to blame after a litany of errors and another poor showing from their skipper.
DCE was almost anonymous in a first 40 minutes described by many fans as one of the worst halves of footy they’ve witnessed from Manly in a long time. Cherry-Evans seemed uninterested and happy to play second fiddle to halves partner Luke Brooks, who took over the bulk of the kicking duties and tried to provide a spark for Manly’s clunky attack.
Cherry-Evans did come close to a 40/20 but that’s about as good as it got in the opening half for the Sea Eagles skipper, whose sloppy pass for Haumole Olakau’atu led to one of numerous mistakes for the hosts. The skipper did set up a late try for Jason Saab in the second half but Manly have looked like a shadow of the side that started the season so strongly ever since Cherry-Evans’ public announcement that he wouldn’t be there next season, and the backlash that has ensued.
The Sea Eagles were belted at home by the Storm two weeks ago and then went down to the Sharks in Perth last week, with DCE well below his best in both games. But arguably his worst performance of the season came on Thursday night against the Dragons, with many fans convinced the messy situation around his impending Manly exit is affecting his and the team’s performances.
Fans turn on DCE after ‘awful’ Manly display
The horror first half for the home side was summed up by a pass from DCE that inexplicably failed to find a teammate and bounced into touch to hand the Dragons yet another turnover. Olakau’atu was also guilty of a number of mistakes through dropped balls or passes that just weren’t on. Dragons speedster Tyrell Sloan made the Sea Eagles pay for their error-riddled display and Valentine Holmes added a penalty goal to make it an 8-0 lead for the visitors at the break, but it really should have been more.
Dragons punish sloppy Manly for second straight win
Manly did improve slightly in the second half but another dropped ball from Ben Trbojevic near the Dragons’ try line allowed Sloan to race down the field and help the visitors take a 14-0 lead. Sipley was then sin-binned for a bizarre hip-drop tackle that ended Mat Feagai’s game and also saw the Manly played sent from the field for an HIA after a nasty blow to the head.
The Sea Eagles finally clicked into gear with a man down and a Reuben Garrick penalty, plus tries for Tolu Koula and Ben Trbojevic pulled the home side level. Holmes restored the Dragons’ advantage after converting a barge-over try from Jacob Liddle before Cherry-Evans finally showed his class with a pinpoint kick to set up a try for Jason Saab.
With Garrick unable to land the conversion, Manly trailed by two points with 10 minutes left but ultimately came up short. Brooks thought he’d scored a try off a kick to put Manly in front but Sipley was ruled offside and DCE had an attempted two-point field goal that missed by some distance and handed the Dragons a crucial seven-tackle set.
Anthony Seibold’s side made nine first-half errors and completing at a pitiful 62 per cent and lost lock Jake Trbojevic after just eight minutes. “We were really poor in the first half,” said Seibold. “I’m really proud of the group, I’ve got to say we finished with nobody fit on the bench and with our third game in 11 days we stayed at it until the end but it wasn’t enough tonight.”
The Dragons’ win was their second in a row and sees Shane Flanagan’s side jump into fifth on the ladder, at least for the moment. “The effort, the scramble, the attitude was there,” Flanagan said after the game. “We made some silly errors and if we want to go to that next level we need to get them out of our game. That’s what I need to keep driving into our group about stopping putting ourselves under pressure.”
