Stat Attack: Manly dominate early stats

An 89-minute epic against the Newcastle Knights may have finished in a loss for Trent Barrett's Manly Warringah Sea Eagles but the pulsating golden point thriller has helped them to the top of several individual player leaderboards after round one of the 2018 Telstra Premiership.

Winger Jorge Taufua showed no ill-effects from the ACL injury that ended his 2017 season earlier, making a powerful comeback that yielded an NRL-high 26 carries (his 239 metres was second behind Rooster Blake Ferguson). Newcastle prop Herman Ese'ese is equal second on the carries list (with Ferguson), four behind on 22.

Hooker Api Koroisau leads the tackle tally after one week with a whopping 66, with teammate Jake Trbojevic fourth in the NRL on 52 (Jake Friend 55, Elijah Taylor 53).

Prop Martin Taupau picked up where he left off in 2017, when he was the competition's top offloader, popping six offloads in his 52 minutes on field. Wests Tigers centre Esan Marsters was second on five with Manly fullback Tom Trbojevic heading a group of players who managed four offloads.

It wasn't just the attacking categories Manly emerged from round one dominating with young half Lachie Croker one of just two players (Cowboy Ben Hampton was the other) to notch four handling errors in the opening round.

Manly's opponents Newcastle dominated a few stats themselves with Kalyn Ponga's 12 tackle breaks the best of round one (Dylan Edwards and Jason Taumalolo busted 10) and Mitchell Pearce dominating total kicks (17, next best Cooper Cronk on 13) and kick metres (492, ahead of Cronk's 379).