Manly have moved to second on the NRL ladder courtesy of their 25-18 win over Cronulla at Brookvale Oval on Sunday.
The Sea Eagles dominated the opening exchanges of the round six match to lead 16-0 through tries to Justin Horo, Daly Cherry-Evans and Tom Symonds before Cronulla twice mounted gritty fightbacks before a crowd of 17,504.
Despite the absence of key playmaker Todd Carney, the Sharks were able to breach Manly’s much vaunted defence through winger Nathan Stapleton each side of halftime to fight their way back to 16-12 after 48 minutes.
But Manly then found another gear.
Peta Hiku crossed in the 59th minute, after bombing a try only minutes before, when Brett Stewart sliced through the Sharks defence and passed on to the rookie winger who scored on his NRL debut.
Steve Matai then stretched the home side’s lead to 24-12 after 64 minutes when Stewart Mills spilt a crossfield kick.
The Sharks weren’t done though and Mills scored after clever lead-up work from Ben Pomeroy.
Chad Townsend landed the sideline conversion to bridge the gap to 24-18 and keep the Sharks’ hopes alive.
A Cherry-Evans field goal with five minutes to go sealed the victory for Manly, who move above Souths into second position on the ladder on for and against – behind only undefeated defending premiers Melbourne.
The loss continued Cronulla’s woeful record at Brookvale Oval where they have won just five of 36 encounters.
Manly’s win was soured by a possible snapped achilles to Joe Galuvao which may mean the end of his 16-year career.