Coach Michael Maguire declared South Sydney were finally starting to play the football they are capable of playing after halves Adam Reynolds and Luke Keary led the Rabbitohs on a 40-24 romp over Manly in the opening to the NRL final series at Allianz Stadium on Friday.
On the back of a rampant Souths forward pack, Reynolds starred in a man-of-the match effort, scoring two tries in a personal haul of 20 points in the second qualifying final, ably supported by Keary as Manly’s glittering finals reputation took a battering.
Racing in seven tries, Souths led 40-0 after 56 minutes to progress to their third successive preliminary final in two weeks before last year’s grand finalists scored four late tries to begin their 10th successive finals campaign in forgettable style.
A pectoral injury to Keary at the pre-season Auckland Nines torpedoed Maguire’s plans to partner Reynolds and Keary in the halves this season.
Maguire said that plan had come to fruition against a poor Manly in one of the few times Reynolds and Keary have played together with captain John Sutton moving to the backrow.
“This last six weeks, Adam has really risen to control the game and John shifting and bringing Luke Keary in has given us a little bit of a look at how we can play the game and John himself has taken on board how the young guys are going,” Maguire said.
“I though John played a very, very good game in the backrow so it gives us variation I suppose at times in our game in the way we play.
“John and I had a lot of talks and it was quite easy to see the way the young guys come together.
“It was the plan at the start of the season, we had this planned way back in early November, December so the young boys have taken it really on board all the things we practised in pre-season.”
Souths’ forwards barrelled over their injury-hit counterparts early and their backs took full advantage.
First-half tries to Reynolds in the 11th minute, Keary (18th), Lote Tuqiri (27th) and Alex Johnston (35th) gave Souths a 22-0 lead at the break before 25,733 fans.
Reynolds grubbered for his second try two minutes after the resumption to put the game beyond doubt, before Dylan Walker crossed in the 52nd minute and Johnston added a double in the 56th minute for Souths to lead 40-0.
Manly brought some respectability to the score with four tries in the last 16 minutes through Brett Stewart, Jamie Lyon, Tom Symonds and Cheyse Blair, a situation that displeased Maguire.
“For the first 65 minutes we were very clinical, I think our last 15 minutes is something we definitely have to work at,” he said.
“To do that this time of the year .. that doesn’t cut it from our standard of how we play.”
A neck injury to back-up hooker Jayden Hodges didn’t help Manly after he caught Greg Inglis’s hip in the fifth minute and was sent to hospital for precautionary scans after halftime.
That added to Manly’s injury toll with Glenn Stewart, Matt Ballin and Jamie Buhrer all sidelined.
Their cause ahead of a semi-final against the winner of Sunday’s elimination final between Melbourne and Canterbury could be further harmed after Anthony Watmough (dangerous throw) and Kieran Foran (high tackle) were put on report.
Foran’s looked relatively harmless but Watmough could be in trouble.
Manly coach Geoff Toovey said they would have to take the positives out of their belated fightback.
“We have to, we have to stay positive,” he said.
“That has to be our shining light.”
