Clunky Manly run down Tigers with late surge
MANLY showed the resilience required to be a top-four team in yesterday’s come-from-behind 28-16 win against the Wests Tigers.
But their attack still has a long way to go, according to coach Trent Barrett.
The Sea Eagles’ success from 16-8 down with 25 minutes to play in the second half kept them third on the ladder, but Barrett was less than pleased his team were forced to do it the hard way following a mid-match lapse at Lottoland.
“It was bit if an indifferent game for us,” Barrett said.
“I’m extremely happy we got the two points, we never take that for granted.
“But we’ve got a bit of work to do. We made it very hard on ourselves with some errors and some poor decisions.”
After the Sea Eagles shot out to an 8-0 lead, they completed just nine sets between the 15th and 50th minutes, as the Tigers scored three unanswered tries.
In the end though they fought back through late tries to wingers Matthew Wright and Akuila Uate, before lock Jake Trbojevic iced the game.
But Barrett knows a similar performance won’t cut it come finals.
“Our attack has been a bit clunky for a couple of weeks to be honest,” Barrett said.
When Manly were firing though, halfback Daly CherryEvans was again superb. He took his try-assist tally for the season to a career-high 22 with Manly’s opening points, and then booted a monstrous 40-20 in the following set to put them on the attack for their second try.
Fullback Tom Trbojevic also had two assists, and finished with 218 metres.