The second game on Sunday for NRL Round 19 is between Manly Sea Eagles and Gold Coast Titans. The opening bounce is set to commence at 3:00pm with the game to be played at Brookvale Oval. The favourite for the match is home team Manly Sea Eagles. View our preview and teams for the game between Manly Sea Eagles and Gold Coast Titans.

Manly Sea Eagles $1.22 vs Gold Coast Titans $4.25 at Sportsbet Australia get a $250 FREE BET on this match

Manly Sea Eagles $1.17 vs Gold Coast Titans $5.30 at Luxbet Australia get a $500 FREE BET on this match

Odds Comparison by NRL Odds:

Manly Sea Eagles	1.22	1.22	1.17	1.22	1.22	1.23
Gold Coast Titans	4.25	4.30	5.30	4.30	4.25	4.30

Preview:

Gold Coast, who are coming off two heavy losses to Newcastle and Penrith, have the unenviable task of travelling to Brookvale on a Sunday afternoon to take on the Sea Eagles who are coming off two thumping victories over Parramatta and North Qld where collectively, they registered 84 points.

Add to the mix that Gold Coast Coach, John Cartwright, confirmed during the week that Gold Coast’s Origin pair of Nate Myles and Greg Bird, will not be backing up from Wednesday night’s game and, the result of this match looks a foregone conclusion.

Simply, the Titans have been poor and with teams of the calibre of South Sydney and Canterbury waiting for them over the next three weeks, the Titans, who sit ninth on the ladder, face losing touch with the top half of the competition.

How they turn their recent form around however, is a question that’s hard to answer.

Manly on the other hand, who faced a tough run of opponents during the middle of the season, have relished the opportunity to meet teams ranked lowly on the ladder.

They’ve completely dominated their opponents in the past two weeks and after frustrating and narrow losses, have now built momentum they’ll be keen to continue here.

The are largely unaffected by Origin with Watmough and Cherry-Evans the only Manly players involved.

Manly are 3 and 1 when playing at home as favourites this year and they look set to better that stat this weekend.

Teams:

Manly Sea Eagles:

Brett Stewart, Jorge Taufua, Jamie Lyon (capt), Steve Matai, David Williams, Kieran Foran, Daly Cherry-Evans, Brenton Lawrence, Matt Ballin, Brent Kite, Anthony Watmough, Justin Horo, Glenn Stewart. Interchange: Richie Fa’aoso, Jamie Buhrer, James Hasson, Nick Skinner.

Gold Coast Titans:

Jordan Rankin, Kevin Gordon, Brad Takairangi, Jamie Dowling, David Mead, Aidan Sezer, Albert Kelly, Luke Bailey, Matt Srama, Luke Douglas, David Taylor, Mark Minichiello, Ashley Harrison. Interchange: Mark Ioane, Ryan James, Ben Ridge, Beau Falloon, Luke O’Dwyer (one to be omitted).

Referees: Ben Cummins, Chris James.

Manly storm home to beat Cowboys in NRL

Manly have returned to the NRL’s top-four while putting a further dent in the finals hopes of the North Queensland Cowboys after a 34-14 win in Townsville.

The Cowboys were missing State of Origin quartet Johnathan Thurston, Matt Scott, James Tamou and Brent Tate but were buoyed by the surprise return of veteran fullback Matt Bowen after seven weeks on the sideline following knee surgery.

But not even the return of the 262-game veteran could help the Townsville team, who are languishing in 13th place on the ladder, six points outside the eight.

The home team did take the lead just after the restart but were consigned to their 11th loss of the season and must win the remainder of their seven games if they are any hope of reaching their third straight finals series.

Bowen added instant security under the high ball to the Cowboys side, a weakness with other custodian Clint Greenshields, but it was from a Cowboys kick that Manly opened the scoring through David Williams in the 11th minute with a good team try that started on their own 12m line.

It was the first of a couple of good team tries by the Sea Eagles, Williams again in the action in the 46th minute, finishing off another play that started with a line break by debutant halfback Peta Hiku and passed through three more sets of Manly hands.

That try came minutes after the Cowboys had grabbed the lead back through pivot Michael Morgan, who took advantage of a bad bounce on Manly fullback Brett Stewart and scored his own grubber kick on 42 minutes.

But that was the last piece of joy for the Cowboys, as the Sea Eagles ran in three more tries over some lacklustre Cowboys defence.

Jorge Taufua, Justin Horo and Steve Matai made it look easy as they crossed the line in the final half-hour to hand the Townsville team their second straight loss.