Cherry on top as Turbo-charged Sea Eagles outclass Bulldogs
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The return of superstar Tom Trbojevic and a captain's knock from Daly Cherry-Evans led Manly to a 31-6 win over the Bulldogs at 4 Pines Park on Saturday.
In Anthony Seibold's first game at the helm, the Sea Eagles exorcised the demons of their seven-game losing streak at the end of a testing 2022 campaign with some sizzling attacking football.
A kick out on the full by Bulldogs five-eighth Matt Burton in the 11th minute gave Manly a shot at the line but Reed Mahoney did a great job to clean up a Cherry-Evans grubber and defuse the situation.
Two minutes later it was Burton inexplicably passing to Viliame Kikau on the last tackle and the back-rower kicked out on the full to give the home side another chance with Cherry-Evans forcing a line dropout.
In the end the pressure proved too much for Canterbury and 4 Pines Park erupted when Cherry-Evans grubbered ahead and Tom Trbojevic followed through to toe ahead and score in his first game back.
Mahoney does it all himself
The Bulldogs hit back in the 21st minute when Mahoney put in a grubber close to the line and collected the rebound off the uprights to score his first try as a Bulldog. Burton's conversion levelled the scores at 6-6.
The sin binning of Bulldogs halfback Kyle Flanagan with five minutes remaining in the first half for a professional foul proved critical with Manly crossing a minute later through Reuben Garrick.
Garrick takes advantage of the extra man
Manly looked to have extended their lead on the stroke of half-time after a dropped ball by Josh Addo-Carr was scooped up by Jake Trbojevic who found Garrick and the winger kicked through. Cooper Johns chased and looked to have touched down first but replays showed Bulldogs prop Max King had scrambled back to ground the ball in a massive play.
The home side needed just three minutes after the break to extend their lead to 18-6 courtesy of a try to Cherry-Evans and when the skipper raced away in the 61st minute to complete his double after a powerful burst by Taniela Paseka the Sea Eagles were rocking at 24-6.
With the game in the bag Tom Trbojevic was given an early mark in the 64th minute and young gun Kaeo Weekes took over at fullback but a head knock to Lachlan Croker three minutes later saw 'Turbo' sent back into the game.
Cherry-Evans then capped a classy display with a field goal and an intercept try to take Manly out by 25 points as the Anthony Seibold era was launched in style in front of a full house at 4 Pines Park.
The win was Manly's first in a season opener since 2013 and will give them plenty of momentum for their round three clash with old rivals Parramatta after a bye next week.
Match: Sea Eagles v Bulldogs
Round 1 -
home Team
Sea Eagles
1st Position
away Team
Bulldogs
17th Position
Venue: 4 Pines Park, Sydney
Match snapshot
- Bulldogs winger Jacob Kiraz came off for a HIA in the 30th minute. He passed and was able to return to the game.
- Bulldogs halfback Kyle Flanagan was sin binned for a professional foul in the 35th minute.
- Hooker Reed Mahoney worked the house down on his Bulldogs debut with 52 tackles and a number of desperation plays in defence to deny tries.
- The Sea Eagles have won eight of their past nine games against the Bulldogs.
- Tom Trbojevic celebrated his comeback with 174 metres from 16 runs, a try assist, two line breaks and a four-pointer of his own.
- Max King was strong in the middle for Canterbury with 14 runs for 131 metres.
Flanagan has been binned
- Paul Alamoti, Jayden Tanner and Jacob Preston were all on NRL debut for the Bulldogs.
- Tom Trbojevic has scored eight tries in his past four games against the Bulldogs.
- Manly winger Reuben Garrick 14-point haul took him to 802 career points.
- Manly hooker Lachlan Croker left the field in the 67th minute for a HIA.
- Haumole Olakau'atu, Taniela Paseka and Sean Keppie combined for 41 runs and 430 metres for the Sea Eagles.
- Daly Cherry-Evans' hat-trick was the first of his 284-game career.
DCE pounces on the mistake
Play of the Game
In his first game since May last year, it just had to be Tommy Turbo grabbing the game's opening try. With Manly skipper Daly Cherry-Evans scheming and Trbojevic trailing him everywhere, the home side hit the scoreboard in the 17th minute after Matt Burton failed to clean up a DCE grubber. Trbojevic got his foot to the rolling ball, nudged it into the in-goal and grounded it for the 79th try of his career and his first since round four last year.
Guess who's back
What They Said
"First career hat-trick for Daly, not bad at 34. A really good performance by our leaders. The leaders have done a really good job through the pre-season. Tommy was just cramping at the end. I took him off and we had to put him back on but he's got through fine and he'll be better for that run as well. I thought we had really good intent with what we did there defensively." - Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold
Sea Eagles: Round 1
"We definitely made it hard for ourselves and our completions weren't where we needed them to be but I thought we showed a hell of a lot of grit there at different times to defend our tryline and to stay in the contest physically but there's a lot of lessons learned. I was really happy with some of the guys today, Jayden Tanner on debut wasn't overawed and he's the sort of guy you want by your side in those games." - Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo
Bulldogs: Round 1
What's Next
The Sea Eagles have the bye in round two before a monster Thursday night showdown with Parramatta at 4 Pines Park to open round three. Five-eighth Josh Schuster (calf) should be back on deck for Manly. The Bulldogs travel to Melbourne in round two to face the Storm.
