Manly Warringah has thrashed the Dolphins by 58-18 tonight at Brookvale Oval in a devastating performance from Anthony Seibold's men.
The Sea Eagles raced in ten tries to two, in what was a club record loss for the NRL's new starters. Manly were simply scintillating, with their Origin stars in Cherry-Evans and Trbojevic dominating in attack, while Rueben Garrick made a successful positional switch to centre, scoring a hat-trick and racking up 30 points for his side.
For the Redcliffe based side it was easily their worst performance of the season, as they simply failed to keep pace with an electric Eagles side. The loss was further compounded with a potentially serious shoulder injury to dummy half Jeremy Marshall-King to add to the rookie side's mounting injury list.
The Dolphins travelled to Sydney for the first time in their short history to face Manly and they missed the bus early falling behind 4-0 after as many minutes when Daly Cherry-Evans and Reuben Garrick combined to put Jason Saab over in the corner untouched.
It was de ja vu for the Dolphins left edge defence minutes later, when Garrick sliced through again without a hand being laid on him and Manly were racing the clock in front of a parochial home crowd.
Manly then put the pedal to the metal when Tom Trbojevic sliced through with a show and go, which was quickly followed up by a soft try to hooker Lachlan Croker from dummy half and it was 22-0.
The Dolphins needed to get their hands on the ball and as soon as they did, they made it count, when winger Jamayne Isaako collected a superb long pass from Kodi Nikorima to race away to score his 13th try of the season and get the visitors on the scoreboard.
Manly quickly regained the ascendency before halftime however, when Garrick scored his second try after a brilliant grubber under pressure from Croker, which gave the home side a commanding 28-6 lead at the break.
The Sea Eagles continued the onslaught after the break, when the chip and chase came back into vogue. First it was Tom Trbojevic scoring his second try following a kick from Daly Cherry-Evans inside his own half. This was followed by five-eighth Josh Schuster with a chip and chase for his speed man Tolutau Koula to give the home side a unassailable 40-6 lead.
Just as it was looking like a cake walk, Queensland flyer Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow put on the after burners off a set play for the Dolphins score their second try and narrow the scoreline to 40-12 with a quarter of the game remaining.
The Eagles then again clicked into an extra gear with ten minutes to go as both Tolutau Koula and Jason Saab secured doubles, before Garrick scored his hat-trick to put an exclamation mark on the performance.
Dolphins flyer Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow then scored a late consolation try but it was a record loss by the NRL's new side, with the Redcliffe based side going down by 58-18.
Round 16 sees Manly-Warringah travel across the Spit Bridge to Parramatta where they face the Eels next Saturday, while the Dolphins will have the bye.