It wasn’t pretty, but after a 24-10 victory over the Warriors on Friday night, Manly are knocking on the door of their first finals series in three years.
With a lighting storm raging overhead, and the heavens opening up on 4 Pines Park, Daly Cherry-Evans helped inspire an ugly victory for the Sea Eagles.
For coach Anthony Seibold, it’s exactly the kind of tenacity the Sea Eagles need to carry into September.
“It was a really gritty win to be fair. New Zealand Warriors, I thought they started the game really well,” said Seibold.
“To have a 14-0 second half, it was really good. The boys showed a lot of fight, we had to defend our line quite a bit, and we did it really well.
“We just spoke about at half-time about being a little more accurate. We gave a lot of piggybacks to the Warriors when they were coming out of their end of the field and then probably made three errors, I think, when we were coming out of yardage.
Tom Trbojevic in Manly’s win against the Warriors.Credit: Getty Images
“It’s just about being a little more accurate, but I just thought the guys sort kept fighting. It wasn’t the prettiest win, but that’s probably where we want to get to, finals footy, which is our ambition, you’ve got to win ugly, and that’s probably the best description for tonight.”
The Warriors came ready for a fight, and kept the Sea Eagles pinned down their own end before a 40/20 from Cherry-Evans helped swing momentum in Manly’s favour.
Source Agencies
