Sea Eagles 22
Raiders 24
Manly chief executive Grahame Lowe must have felt like tearing his hair out as the Sea Eagles squandered a chance to consolidate a place in the top eight against Canberra at Brookvale Oval last night.
The lowly Raiders grew in confidence throughout the match to clinch an upset away win against the Sea Eagles, who were let down by carelessness and impatience in a grandstand finish.
It was a result which has the potential to help the Warriors, who can move into the top eight if they beat the Panthers today.
The Raiders had the commitment the Sea Eagles lacked with fullback Josh Dugan, five-eighth Terry Campese and halfback Josh McCrone key figures of a well-thought-out game plan.
Manly played in fits and starts. Steve Matai, Anthony Watmough and Michael Robertson were spasmodically impressive but there was the impression the Sea Eagles thought this game was in the bag before they took the field.
Seventh-placed Manly began as clear favourites despite losing three of their last four games, including a 22-40 defeat by the Panthers in their last outing. Canberra were 13th after losing their last four matches and they had lost seven of their last eight games against the Sea Eagles, including four on the trot.
But the Raiders made the best possible start, wing Joel Monaghan intercepting a pass from Ben Farrar and sprinting 80m to a try under the posts.
Manly struck back with three tries in 20 minutes - wing Tony Williams stretching out to score, Steve Matai gathering Trent Hodkinson kick and Michael Robertson latching on to a sweetly-timed pass from Matai.
But Canberra stayed in contact with a try by Daniel Vidot from a break by Adam Mogg and took an 18-16 lead on the stroke of halftime when Joe Picker crashed over.
It was a bewildering scoreline, for the Sea Eagles had enjoyed 57 per cent of the possession and had missed 11 tackles to Canberra's 19, but the Raiders had efficiently punished any Manly mistakes.
The game was not going according to script. Canberra started the second spell strongly and extended their lead to eight points after five minutes when Campese dummied and crashed through two tackles to score by the posts.
Manly, staring down the barrel of defeat, found renewed urgency but they could not penetrate the Raiders, now playing and defending with more confidence and accuracy.
The Sea Eagles were back in with a chance when Farrar scored from a perfectly-weighted kicked three minutes from the end, but Canberra held on to win by two.
Sea Eagles 22 (T. Williams, S. Matai, M. Robertson B. Farrar tries, S. Rodney 3 goals); Raiders 24 (J. Monaghan, D. Vidot, J. Picker, T. Campese tries, J. Croker 4 goals). Halftime: Canberra, 18-16.
