Manly Warringah has claimed their fourth straight victory surviving a second-half scare from the Gold Coast Titans to win 26-18 at 4 Pines Park before a monstrous crowd of 16,220.
After a few early opportunities that were unable to be converted by the visitors, Manly pounced with a clever blindside raid which saw Daly Cherry-Evans place a grubber kick inch-perfectly and allowed Haumole Olakau'atu to dive on the footy and punish the Titans for their inability to convert their opportunities early in the match. Reuben Garrick's kick from the right-hand touchline was successful and Manly had an early 6-0 advantage through the opening 15 minutes.
Manly's early disciplinary issues would be concerning for Des Hasler, however, the defence of his troops were able to hang on and hold the Titans out. The same couldn't be said for the Titans when up against the same defensive pressure as Jake Trbojevic's ball-playing opened the Titans up and allowed Garrick to stroll over against some soft Titans' defence. Garrick converted his own try and Manly was looking ominous early on. Haumole Olakau'atu was denied 7 minutes later in a sensational tackle from Jamayne Isaako, but two tackles later up against a heavy possession count, Olakau'atu punched straight through the Titans defence and had a handy 18-0 advantage.
Gold Coast did hit back just prior to half-time through the work of David Fifita who got on the outside of two defenders and linked up with Isaako and the visitors had a handy try before the break to reduce the margin to 14 points. Off the kickoff, the Titans went for their trademark early shift but it backfired in a spectacular fashion which saw Isaako turn from hero to zero. Kieran Foran threw a dummy and the crowd at Brookie thought we were back in 2012 as Foran went right through and scored to put the margin back out to 20 points at half-time.
Straight after the break, the Titans were looking the better side and ten minutes into the second 40, the visitors capitalised off a brilliant kick from Toby Sexton which was batted back by Phillip Sami who linked up with Brian Kelly who crossed out wide. Sexton's goalkicking proved vital with the margin out to 16 due to missed kicks. Seven minutes later, Pat Herbert showed his strength before unloading to David Fifita who got on the outside of the Manly edge defence and all of a sudden, the Titans were within two tries. Sexton hit the upright for the second time and the margin remained the same.
Will Smith provided a lovely ball to Tino Fa'asuamaleaui to outpace Garrick and cross for the visitors and with Sexton's first kick of the game, the visitors were within a converted try. However, the Titans failed to convert their chances with the ball and with an offside play from Fa'asuamaleaui, Cherry-Evans kicked the penalty goal and Manly looked home with an 8 point advantage. However, Beau Fermor appeared to cross in the final minute to put both sets of fans on the edge of their seats, but the Bunker ruled Fermor offside and Manly hung on for a scrappy but vital victory.
Manly next weekend take on the in-form Sharks to kickoff ANZAC Round, while the Titans take on the Cowboys in Townsville next weekend.