Sea Eagles battered into submission by brutal Roosters
After one run, the Sydney Roosters had signalled their intentions to beat Manly into submission.
After two, it became clear the Sea Eagles were going to need a miracle to escape Allianz Stadium in one piece.
And after 80 minutes, Manly’s dream of a deep NRL finals run had been battered into oblivion.
The Sea Eagles lost Tolu Koula to a game-ending head knock on the first tackle of Saturday night’s semi-final, the centre unable to contain Jared Waerea-Hargreaves as he returned from suspension with a vengeance.
Manly lock Jake Trbojevic left for head injury assessment only one tackle later as he too tried unsuccessfully to put himself in the way of a rampaging Rooster, this time Lindsay Collins.
Trbojevic was able to return, but the two runs set the tone. The Roosters may have been without injured Brandon Smith and Sam Walker, but they weren’t going to be without verve like in the qualifying final loss to Penrith.
Manly managed to squeak home against a physically dominant Canterbury in their own week-one final, but hanging around wasn’t going to be enough against the NRL’s best attacking team.
In his 250th NRL game, superstar fullback James Tedesco was the star of the Roosters’ 40-16 win.
The Roosters broke tackles at will, seemingly always able to find an offload and roll forward. Between them, the Roosters’ back five busted 20 tackles.
They scored their first try on a raid down the field, Tedesco putting Victor Radley into space much too easily on the forward’s return from a shoulder issue.
Manly centre Reuben Garrick had a nightmarish evening on the right edge, appearing hampered by his own shoulder injury and duly targeted by Roosters.
With Garrick sore, Koula sidelined and the Roosters rampant, the Sea Eagles found it hard to play their usual expansive style of game, or enter the red zone with any kind of regularity.
Not even superstar fullback Tom Trbojevic could spark them, only breaking the line once in the second half.
Defence on the edges proved an issue, with Daly Cherry-Evans caught out by Sandon Smith after inexplicably switching edges with halves partner Luke Brooks in the lead-up to the Tricolours’ third try.
But Manly had issues through the middle as well – no Sea Eagles forward ran for more than 100 metres.
After scoring the final try of the first half, Manly needed to take their momentum into the second stanza, but bungled their own chance at a tone-setter.
Bench prop Josh Aloiai spilt the ball from the first set of the half, and the Roosters shifted left for Daniel Tupou to dive over and restore a four-score lead.
Manly were hot and cold all through 2024, but on Saturday night, there was only cold as Anthony Seibold’s second season at the helm came to a close.
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