Manly will be without the services of fullback Tom Trbojevic after dislocating his shoulder as Parramatta came back to pip Manly in controversial circumstances at CommBank Stadium.
Parramatta thought they had the first try inside the first five minutes, but Hayze Perham was ruled to have obstructed Christian Tuipulotu from catching the bomb. After a slow start in which both sides were fighting it end to end. Manly pounced when Josh Schuster took a Mitch Moses kick out of the air and run downfield. Off the ensuing set, they shifted it left with Kieran Foran and Turbo. Morgan Harper redeems himself by stepping inside to get it to Reuben Garrick to cross for the first try, Garrick converted to extend their early lead.
Three minutes later, Parramatta pounced when Perham crossed following a poor read from Manly in defence and Perham crossed, but Manly still had a two-point lead. Five minutes later, a poor Moses kick came back to bite the Eels when DCE found Christian Tuipulotu and the young winger crossed in the right-hand corner to extend their lead out to two converted tries.
Perham grabbed his double seven minutes later as the weight of possession crushed the Manly defence after great ball movement from Brown and Gutho to reduce the margin to two. Mitch Moses was sin-binned on the stroke of half-time after a dubious professional foul when he pulled Tommy Turbo off the ball. Parramatta was able to hang on to trail by just two at the break.
Straight after the break, Manly pounced on the lack of numbers when Morgan Harper finished off a great movement started by Turbo capitalising on the poor edge defence from Parramatta. When Moses returned in the 49th minute, Manly pounced when Garrick collected his second try after diving on a great grubber kick from Foran to get the margin out to 10.
On the hour mark, Tom Opacic crossed for the Eels when the offloads kept adding up for the home side and Manly were hanging on for dear life as the margin cut to four. The bad news kept on coming when two minutes later, Turbo dislocated his shoulder trying to force the ball dead in a contest in the in-goal.
Manly's poor discipline continued to add up and Sean Keppie was guilty of a dangerous throw and was sin-binned by referee Ben Cummins on advice from the Bunker. Repeated sets off some poor discipline including a questionable high shot from Tuipulotu on Perham saw Manly eventually crack with three to go when Matterson linked up with Penisini to cross out-wide. Moses converted from the sideline showcasing his clutch ability.
Manly had one final chance to win, but the last chance failed to amount to points sealing a controversial win for Parramatta in a match that will be talked about all weekend.