A second half blitz from the Manly Sea Eagles, as seen them cruise to victory against the Brisbane Broncos, winning 34-10 at Suncorp Stadium.
Whilst the Sea Eagles had their full strength side, the decision was made by Broncos coach Anthony Griffin to rest Origin stars Sam Thaiday, and Darren Lockyer.
The win was Manly’s 6th from its last 7 games, as they outlined their premiership credentials, and it was also their 4th consecutive win over the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium.
Despite showing promising signs, the Broncos young brigade eventually could not keep up with the live-wire Sea Eagles in the second half, and it cost them.
With the score only being 10-4 at the break, it should have been a lot more, given that Manly had all of the early pressure, but failed to capitalise on it.
After his teams second-half performance in particular, Griffin was livid with his teams showing, but refused to make any excuses about the game, and why they lost.
“We were in the game and leading the game at 10-4 … but our effort in the middle of the ruck and some of the decisions we made, we just buried ourselves,” Griffin said
“We did a good job to get ourselves in that position but we rolled over when the heat came on.
“The opposition went to another level and we just didn’t go with them.
“I take nothing away from Manly, they were white-hot but we didn’t throw much at them to put them off their game.”
To make matters worse for the Broncos, second-rower Ben Te’o, is believed to have re-fractured his already injured arm.
Despite their big win, Manly coach Des Hasler knows that the Broncos side is a lot different when their missing stars play, and he acknowledged that.
“You need that, you need those players who come up with those special plays,” he said.
“In the second half we stepped it up a little bit and played some patches of pretty good football.”
He also thought that criticism of Jason King’s Origin performance was totally unjustified.
“I think some of that was unwarranted,” Hasler said.
“I thought he came back well tonight and was one of the best out there.”
Dally M Points
3 Daly-Cherry Evans
2 William Hopoate
1 Jamie Lyon