Manly razed Fortress Brookvale to the ground, then lit it up with a 14-point fightback, and finally succumbed to Cronulla 30-14 to round out the wildest weekend of rugby league in memory.
After an opening 40 minutes that hurt to watch, the Sea Eagles became the sixth side this round to run down a 14-point lead, only for Cronulla to triumph, comfortably in the end, with a trio of late tries.
At 14-14 with 15 minutes to play, Reuben Garrick coughed up a grubber in his own in-goal that Braydon Trindall pounced upon. It was the win Cronulla deserved, but wasn’t guaranteed until Ronaldo Mulitalo did the same to have Manly fans making for an early exit.
“It’s a difficult place to come and play, so we probably expected that they were going to have a run of possession and be hard to handle for a bit,” coach Craig Fitzgibbon said.
“But we prepared for that, we’ve had some good lessons in that this year. I felt like the players were pretty calm and connected still out there under pressure so it was pretty pleasing.”
Credit to the 15,823 punters who stuck it out as the Sea Eagles tortured themselves and their fans. Even more so for refusing to engage with the ground announcer’s inane attempt at a “Manly” chant when the Sharks led 14-0.
Ronaldo Mulitalo and the Sharks had plenty to smile about on Sunday.Credit: Getty Images
Nicho Hynes dominated an out-of-sorts Daly Cherry-Evans in the No.7 stakes and set up tries for Mulitalo and Addin Fonua-Blake. The Sharks should have led by more at halftime.
Throughout the first half, Manly didn’t look like they have the fastest backline in the NRL. They looked like people who had just met each other for the first time in the Brookvale carpark.
Passes hit the deck, sailed into the hands of waiting defenders or were destined to put the ball-carrier in hospital.
Eight Manly errors and five penalties put the contest on a platter for the visitors.
“That’s what it looks like when you put a lot of pressure on yourself as a side,” Cherry-Evans said.
“You don’t want to be falling into a trap of hoping your attack saves your defence”.
And then the locals produced one of the tries of the season to start their fightback, playing “exactly like the sort of footy team that we can be.”
A dropped ball from Trindall was latched onto by Haumole Olakau’atu on his own 10-metre line before he took off up-field and grubbered on the first tackle of the set.
Jason Saab and Reuben Garrick managed to make their passes stick at full flight, Koula kept up with them and scored, and just like that, Manly were back.
When Koula stepped back against the grain for his second, and Garrick knocked over a 61st-minute penalty goal, it was level pegging once more, and the first half was a distant memory.
Following the lead of the Gold Coast, South Sydney, Canterbury, St George Illawarra and North Queensland in mowing down double-figure leads this weekend (though the Dragons lost by a point), Manly were back.
But just as suddenly, so were Cronulla. Their late blitz leaves them in outright fifth on the ladder, with clear skies ahead. Or at least, eight of their next 14 games at home, along with three byes.
The Sharks have earned a reprieve given their travels have taken them from Las Vegas to Townsville, then Canberra and Perth, Newcastle and Brisbane. They host Melbourne next week.
Manly head to North Queensland with one half of footy to work with at least. The other is best razed from memory.
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