The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs have defeated the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 16-12 at Brookvale Oval on Friday night.
In what was a scrappy game in wet and stodgy conditions, the Bulldogs were able to do the most with the ball attacking the Manly line. Brookvale Oval has seen better days, with huge divots and about a tonne of sand making conditions tough for both teams.
Jamie Lyon was a late exclusion for Manly, joining Keiran Foran on the sidelines. Brett Stewart stepped up to captain the Sea Eagles for only the fourth time in his career on a night that the star fullback would rather forget.
Manly coughed up possesion 3 times in the opening 10 minutes and were punished on the scoreborrd. Tim Lafai converted the first real chance of the match for Canterbury after Josh Jackson drifted right, drawing two defenders close to the line to put the visitors up 4-0 in the 17th minute.
The skies opened up, but the video referee did not. Manly had a try disallowed due to an obsrtuction.
“I don’t think anybody is impeded, but it will be a no try,” commented Peter Sterling with no hint of cynicism to what has proven to be a debilitating law of the game.
“You still have to catch it either behind or outside [the player running decoy],” explained match referee Matt Cecchin to the Manly captain.
The home side did manage to cross in the 30th minute to make it 4-4. Dally Chery-Evans ran at the line drawing the defense 15 metres out. His pass to Feleti Mateo left little for the five-eight to do in scoring his first try for the club.
With Lyon on the sideline, Manly were left in great need of a quality goal-kicker in the trying conditions. They did not kick a conversion all night. Points that would have meant a great deal in the relatively low-scoring match.
Lafai grabbed a double soon after, latching on to a opportunity created by a Moses Mbye bomb that was left to bounce in front of the Manly fullback. Sam Perrett gathered the kick and found Lafai in support to put the Dogs up 10-4.
Manly needed to respond and they did so through their strong left side fringe attack. Steve Matai was controversially awarded a try after it seemed he was held up over the line by Aiden Tolman. The on-field referee gave no try and the evidence looked thin, suggesting that the decision would revert to the on field judgment. However, a try was awarded by the video referee and Manly were within 2-points at 10-8 in the 50th minute.
“There is no evidence he got the ball on the ground,” Tolman protested on the field to Cecchin. “They’ve got vision up there. We all saw it. How is that enough evidence?” A decision that will no doubt be reviewed throughout the week.
The Sea Eagles controlled territory with a decent 65% domination. But poor ball handling cost them again and again. The Bulldogs handling was not much better, but they were able to make their chances count.
Sam Perrett ran a perfect depth and was hit by a huge cut-out pass thrown by Mbye to the right wing 20 metres out from the Manly line. The New Zealand representative crossed and Hodkinson converted (2/3) to make it 16-8 with 10 minutes to play.
Dally Cherry-Evans gave his best efforts, but struggled in the conditions. He looked good attacking the line and did so again in the final minutes. Evans hit Peta Hiku with a cut-out ball to the right wing, but was again unable to convert the try.
Both teams scored three tries, but it was Manly’s poor goal-kicking that handed the Bulldogs all three points in a grotty display of first grade rugby league.
“Every time we come here it is always a tough game,” commented Bulldog’s man of the match Aiden Tolman who finished the game with 18 hit-ups and 37 tackles.
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