NRL 2024; Manly Sea Eagles; Canterbury Bulldogs; Tolu Koula; Daly Cherry-Evans; Cameron Ciraldo; Tom Trbojevic – MASHAHER

Manly coach Anthony Seibold has praised his centre Tolu Koula after the speedster scored one of the great semi-final tries to get Manly home 24-22 against the Bulldogs in a nailbiter at Accor Stadium on Sunday.

Down 22-18 with nine minutes remaining, Sea Eagles captain Daly Cherry-Evans ran it on the fifth tackle from inside his own half before sending it through the hands for Koula to race 45 metres and claim a brilliant four-pointer to end the Bulldogs’ season.

“I was pretty happy… it was a pretty fair try,” Seibold said of Koula’s outstanding elimination final try.

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“We see it from Tolu at training and he’s a very gifted athlete and a very quick young guy so to do it on this stage in front of 50,000 – that’s a real special finals try isn’t it?

“The guys ran it on the last which we identified that they were probably dropping back a bit early – it was a pretty special play.”

Manly winger Lehi Hopoate had a mixed afternoon defensively and with ball in hand, which included being bundled into touch, but certainly made up for it with a stunning play that sent the under-siege Sea Eagles into the sheds down just 16-12 at the break.

Trailing 16-6 in the 36th-minute, Hopoate leapt for a Cherry-Evans bomb before finding forward Ethan Bullemor in support who crossed for a desperately needed try which got Manly back in the contest.

“That was a big moment for him to go and challenge the contact like he did and come out the other side with the footy,” Seibold said.

“He’s a special young kid and he’s humble and things probably didn’t go his way a lot but like a lot of the guys we just stayed at it.

“We talk about that big games aren’t perfect and that wasn’t perfect and you’ve got to move on from moments if it doesn’t go your way and I feel like the guys did that really well today.

“Lehi had to move from some moments that probably he didn’t win but he did that well and stayed at it.”

The victory sees Manly claim their first playoff win since 2021 – the most recent year they featured in a finals series.

They will now face the Roosters in a sudden death final on Saturday night at Allianz Stadium for a chance to progress to a preliminary final against the Storm in Melbourne.

“Really proud it was a real finals football game,” Seibold said.

“The scoreboard was close and the Bulldogs probably were on top for the bulk of the game in front of 50,000.

“They’re the games we as a club want to be a part of.

“We just hung in and I thought the longer the game went the scoreboard didn’t get away from us and I was really proud of the guys.

“There was big moment s from our key players.

“We were really positive at half time and we had it much possession what so ever in the first half and the score was maybe four in front to them.

“We spoke and made some tactical changes and maintain the effort and give ourselves a chance at the back end of the game.

“The guys stayed at it and there was some real class from our guys to get the result.”

Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo said Manly’s stars shone through when their side needed it most.

“Him (Tom Trbojevic) and Daly (Cherry-Evans) are champion players, they come up with those moments and they have been doing it their whole career,” Ciraldo said.

“We had a really young team tonight, I think the difference was maybe 1000 games of experience and that’s why experience counts.

“It’s those guys who stood up in that moment and Tom was so brave tonight, you can tell he was carrying a couple of things and didn’t look himself.

“But to come up with a play in that moment is why he’s such a champion player and why he got his team over the line, congratulations to them. They did really well.”