Despite Origin stars Tom Trbojevic and Daly Cherry-Evans sitting in the stands, Manly has bounced back from last week's shock loss to Canberra by defeating St George-Illawarra by 32-18 at CBUS Stadium on the Gold Coast tonight.
The Sea Eagles were led to victory by a vintage performance from five-eighth Kieran Foran who was superb for Manly, turning back the clock with a number of deft touches in attack, as well as controlling the second half of the match superbly in a promising sign for the Sea Eagles premiership chances in 2021.
St George were well in the match heading into halftime, as the game see-sawed several times before Manly broke away after the break to leave the Dragons floundering as they were terrorised on the edges by the silky skills of Josh Schuster and the rampaging Haumole Olakau'atu who continue to improve at a rate of knots for Des Hasler's men.
The Red V would have fancied their chances when the teamlists came out prior to kickoff, however unfortunately for Anthony Griffin, the game isn't played on paper and the loss now leaves the chances of St George staying in the Top 8 in jeopardy.
The Dragons got off to a nice start when Queensland Origin hero Ben Hunt continued his red-hot form from Wednesday night, when he put Jack Bird away down the right-hand edge. Bird then offloaded back inside to find a flying Tyrell Sloan who streaked away to score under the posts in just his second NRL game for the rookie fullback. Jack Bird converted from in front and the Dragons took an early lead.
It didn't take Manly long to respond however, when Haumole Olakau'atu stepped neatly away from Corey Norman and Tariq Sims to find Morgan Harper in support with the former Bulldog scoring Manly's first try and following the conversion from Rueben Garrick it was 6-all after 15 minutes.
Olakau'atu was at it again on the right-hand side, when he received some early ball off Schuster and the up and coming back rower steamrolled Dragons centre Brayden Williame to score and give the Sea Eagles the lead.
The Dragons then hit back, when former Queensland prop Josh McGuire crashed over, following a neat pass from dummy half from Andrew McCullough. Bird then converted from in front to again level the scores.
St George then took the lead just before the break, when Sea Eagles utility Dylan Walker was penalised for a strip on Jack Bird close to the line and Bird took the two points on offer and give his side the edge 14-12 at halftime.
The Sea Eagles came out of a cannon to open the second half, when Josh Schuster and Moses Suli combined to make a break down the left edge. Schuster then found his five-eighth Kieran Foran with a superb no look pass and Manly edged back in front.
Cade Cust then made it back-to-back tries for Manly, when the bench utility took on the line and stretched out to keep his fingertips on the ball to score an unlikely try for his side. The was quickly followed by a try to centre Brad Parker, following a sublime pass from Kieran Foran close to the line, which saw Parker charge through a gap to score untouched and extend the Sea Eagles lead to 34-12 following Garrick's successful conversion.
The Dragons finished with a consolation try, when Ben Hunt attempted a trick shot from a scrum, kicking for Tyrell Sloan who managed to collect the ball and offload in the one motion to veteran winger Gerard Beale who managed to hold off the cover defence to score a sensational try.
The Dragons never threatened the Eagles however, and Manly then kicked a penalty on fulltime to extend their victory to 32-18 in a dominant display and keep Des Hasler's side in touch with the Top 4.
Manly will now welcome back their rested stars in Tom Trbojevic and Daly Cherry-Evans when they face Wests Tigers in Round 19 next Saturday, while St George with face the Titans which will now be a vital game for their finals hopes for 2021.