Sea Eagles 19
Warriors 16
The Sea Eagles and the Warriors produced a see-sawing encounter where the lead changed six times. The hosts prevailed courtesy of a 76th-minute Trent Hodkinson field goal which broke a 16-16 deadlock before centre Jamie Lyon slotted a final-minute penalty. Manly displayed more composure under pressure.
The Warriors took a 14-10 lead into halftime but looked fragmented throughout. However, it did not stop them producing some classic counter-attacking. It made for a match where the outcome had no more certainty than a roulette wheel - the ball whizzed around everywhere too.
It was a worthy encounter to showcase the desperation of teams playing to determine the destiny of their respective seasons. The result pushes Manly to fifth on the table on 28 points for now with the Warriors slipping to seventh, albeit with the same number of points.
A chat from coach Ivan Cleary looked to calm the Warriors initially in the second half but they soon returned to looking dishevelled. They stood to capitalise when, in the 45th minute, Manly prop Brent Kite threw a loose pass across the touchline just five metres out from their line.
But they could not do it and, after a James Maloney penalty to stretch the lead to 16-10, the Sea Eagles countered with Tony Williams' second try in the 48th minute which, with the conversion, brought the score to 16-16 - where it stayed for the majority of the second half.
Both sides had their chances to sneak in front. Prop Ben Matulino shuffled across the line in a tackle with the ball strapped to his backside but dropped it before impact. Vatuvei then defused a bomb, taking it from Lyon's grasp as a try loomed, minutes later.
Hodkinson and Maloney traded missed field goals once the clocked ticked over 70 minutes before the Manly five-eighth's wobbly effort that edged over the crossbar with Sam Rapira's fingerprints still on it.
Maloney remains an enigma at times. He gave away two penalties in the first quarter, adding to a mounting count as the most penalised player in the NRL this season. Just three minutes later he launched a horrendous looking bomb which skewed to the right off his boot.
Manly seemed to pause and look at it with disdain. They made the mistake of letting it bounce only to have Bill Tupou pick it up, switch it quickly to Simon Mannering, who skipped Brent Tate out and found Maloney looming on the inside in the chase.
The five-eighth audaciously stepped through a couple of feeble tackles from Hodkinson and Lyon to strike a sublime blow for the Warriors in a vintage attack from broken play.
Vatuvei suffered a dip in his recent sublime form. In the 29th minute he was forced to launch inside his opposite Williams out of desperation to save a try for Manly on the overlap. He failed and Williams crossed, barely touched. Interchange forward George Rose looked like a monster version of Harry Houdini in a straitjacket as he tried to offload on his way there but Manly soon had it through the slick hands of Hodkinson and Glenn Stewart to find Williams.
Vatuvei fumbled the ball in the 33rd minute, 10 metres outside his own line, which helped Manly build further pressure. Fortunately for him, the Warriors' defence held firm until the end of the first half. He also suffered when he tried to offload in the 78th minute as desperation set in.
Simon Mannering produced a characteristically resilient game as skipper. He showed slick hands on attack in the Maloney try, produced some bruising tackling and supplied some heavy horsepower to grunt across the line like a Massey Ferguson tractor in the 38th minute.
Interchange hooker Alehana Mara made a dynamic debut late in the first half as a penetrating dummy-half.
Michael Luck suffered a knee injury which saw him taken off midway through the second half. The seriousness had not been determined late last night.
Sea Eagles 19 (S. Matai, 2 T. Williams tries, J. Lyon 2 goals, T. Hodkinson field goal) Warriors 16 (J. Maloney, S. Mannering tries, Maloney 4 goals). HT: Warriors 14-10.
