Gutsy Sea Eagles sneak home in thriller

Manly celebrate a Daly Cherry-Evans try. pic mark evans Source: News Corp Australia

THAT confirms it. There is no such thing as a weak Manly.

Take out Brett Stewart. Take out Glenn Stewart.

And somehow Geoff Toovey's men can still walk into a bar room brawl with the giant sized South Sydney and walk off with the champagne.

How do they do it?

It's called guts. And with it comes the glory.

On Friday night no one gave them a chance going into the blockbuster in Gosford but with both teams finishing with two tries each it was the Sea Eagles who went home with a griping 14-12 victory.

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Jamie Lyon of Mamly. Source: News Corp Australia

All over the park they were outstanding but probably none more so than the wonderful little halfback Daly Cherry-Evans who came up with a try that locked the match in the 62nd minute before a Jamie Lyon penalty goal in the 76th minute sealed it.

After trailing for the entire match Souths stole the lead in the 50th minute after some brilliant lead up work from Greg Inglis sent Beau Champin crashing over.

But the Sea Eagles just wouldn't surrender and Cherry-Evans was on hand after Jamie Buhrer danced his way into space to make it 12-all heading into the final 15 minutes of a thoroughly entertaining match.

It was a disappointing crowd of only 15,120 at Central Coast Stadium but the empty seat certainly didn't take anything away from a terrific game of footy.

The Burgess brothers went to war with the Manly pack and while that contest ended in a split decision the class of the Manly halves proved the difference.

Cherry-Evans and Kieran Foran are already rated the best halves combination in the competition and on Friday they again showed why.

Sam Burgess of Souths runs into Dunamis Lui of Manly. Source: News Corp Australia

Manly's first half was exceptional but despite dominating the opening 40 minutes they went to the break holding a narrow 6-4 lead.

With Brett and Glenn Stewart both missing, not many gave the Sea Eagles a hope but from the opening minutes it was obvious they had made the trip up the freeway with the intent to make a statement after their first round second half collapse against Melbourne.

They opened the scoring after just seven minutes when Peta Hiku got a late ball away when he appeared held five metres out and from a standing start Steve Matai seized the moment when he found space for Cheyse Balir to touch down in the left corner.

Matai was creating havoc in the early exchanges on the left edge and with Cherry-Evans and Foran running the show the Sea Eagles held the upper hand for almost the entire first half.

Outstanding in the opening round against the Roosters, Souths were simply making too many errors early on to extend Manly's defence.

Daly Cherry-Evans gets a kick away for Manly. Source: News Corp Australia

The effort was there but the application was missing with the Rabbitohs completing only 11 of their 21 sets in the opening half while Manly weren't a whole lot better with only 13 completions from 21 sets.

Manly narrowly missed another try in the 23rd minute when Cherry-Evans had a try knocked back from as Foran kick after Jamie Lyon touched the ball in flight.

And only a superb trysaving tackle from Inglis saved another try to Matai in the 30th minute.

A Lyon penalty goal gave the Sea Eagles a six point lead in the 34th minute.

But in the countdown to the break an Anthony Watmough swinging arm opened up opportunity for the Rabbitohs to put themselves right back in the game.

Watmough ended up on report for a tackle on Joe Picker that warranted a penalty and no more.

But from the ensuing set Watmough then knocked the ball out of Issac Luke's hands and Sam Burgess scooped up one of the easiest tries he will ever score.

Cheyse Blair scores for Manly. Source: News Corp Australia

But then Adam Reynolds continued the theme of the first half when he missed a relatively easy conversion attempt to allow Manly to hold on to a 6-4 lead at halftime.

Souths then stole the lead 10 minutes into the second half when Inglis chimed into a backline movement made hard work look easy as he collected a tough pass before sending Beau Champion over down the right edge.

A Reynolds penalty goal in the 55th minute extended Souths lead to a converted try with just over a quarter of the match to play.

And for the Sea Eagles, without the strike of the Stewart brothers it was only hard work ahead.

But some wonderful footwork from Jamie Buhrer opened a gap for Cherry-Evans to strike with a converted try locking the scores at 12-all to set up a thrilling finish.

MANLY 14 (C Blair D Cherry-Evans tries J Lyon 3 goals) beat SOUTH SYDNEY 12 (S Burgess B Champion tries A Reynolds 2 goals) at Central Coast Stadium. Referee: Shayne Hayne, Chris James. Crowd: 15,120.

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