Haumole Olakau'atu with a great run, breaks the line, gets in space, grubbers ahead and Coates bats the ball dead, denying Manly a last gasp try that they did not deserve.
SCRUM MANLY - 10m from their own line.
Answer: By putting in a heavy grubber that no one expected and the ball goes dead.
Manly inside the Storm half now. How will they turn it over this time?
SCRUM MANLY - Refs Challenge. Garlick pinged for a knock on, Storm challenge and fail.
PENALTY STORM - Manly seemingly interested in turning the ball over. Storm find touch on halfway
Pezet unable to convert from the sideline
Coates is just showing off now. Pezet reacts to the defence rushing up, so he grubbers for the unmarked Coates, who regathers and then dives high and over the cover defence then scores in the corner while the rest of his body is in the air and over the sideline.
Hughes grubbers for his centre NAS, but Christian Tuipulotu cleans up just in time.
Set restart Storm
Storm with a full set 10m from Manly's line
Paseka drops the ball on the second tackle, inside the Storm 30m. Manly are allergic to the Storm red zone
SCRUM STORM - Koula drops a pass 10m from the Storm line.
Meaney fails to convert from the sideline
This is cruel. A hard grubber by Pezet is fumbled back by a diving Ray Tuaimalo-Vaega, the ball pops up nicely for Coates, who takes it cleanly as he gets crunched by Garrick, but he has enough strength and momentum to get across the line to score.
Play stopped as a stray accidental finger from Christian Welch pokes Paseka in the eye
Meaney converts
Big NAS on the right side at second receiver, gets through an almost tackle effort, steps off his right to beat Garrick and then runs 37kms to score.
And on the first tackle the Sea-Eagles turn it over.
PENALTY MANLY - Coates holding down. Lets Manly off the hook as they find touch 20m from halfway
Play stopped as Lawton stays down after copping a heavy tackle. Nothing illegal though. No fights triggered.
Storm with the short restart but Manly get the ball.
DCE earns his side a repeat set. Storm drop out
PENALTY MANLY - Illegal strip by the Storm. Manly find touch 10m inside the Storm half
Grant goes shortside, gets caught, but grubbers ahead and Garrick cleans up.
Hughes puts up a kick and it bounces before Koula taps it back to Garrick who then gets out of trouble and makes a good 30 metres
Manly tuen the ball over 30m from their own line
Hughes on the last just, gets tackled.
Pene helped off the field with a knee injury.
PENALTY MANLY - While Pene nurses his bloke bits, Pene gets put on report.
And we're back underway and it looks like Pene got Croker in the err, Pene region, with a stray knee.
Meaney converts
Hughes grubbers into the Manly in-goal and Pezet follows through to ground the ball under the sticks for a try.
Coates breaks through the line and makes 40 metres before Garrick brings him down, 20m from the Manly line.
Aaaaaaaaaaand The Storm send the ball left to Coates and it goes into touch instead.
Set Restart Storm, 10m from the Manly line
PENALTY STORM - High shot. Storm now go on the attack
DCE over runs his own play after stepping two defenders and then grubbering for himself. The Storm regather the ball
Reimis Smith spills the ball, 8 metres shy of the Manly line.
Meaney fails to convert from touch
Quick hands by the Storm on the right side results in Warbrick getting the ball in space, but with the Manly defence closing in on him. Warbrick flicks the ball infield behind his back as he is going into touch, Hughes picks up the loose ball and dives over to score in the corner.
PENALTY STORM - The Storm get a piggy back out of trouble. They start this set 5m shy of halfway
SCRUM STORM - And now the Sea-Eagles turn it over cheaply, again, while in good attacking position.
The Storm turn it over in their own half. Bellamy gets 10% stronger with every Storm error. There could be another Melbourne earthquake in 18 minutes time when Bellamy puts his foot down.
Manly get the ball out wide on the left to Christian Tuipulotu who then drops it...
Woods being a goose, trying to get Assault at AAMI Started.
Set restart Manly
Hughes puts up a great kick for Coates but Ray Tuaimalo-Vaega was perfect, taking it cleanly and getting a 7 tackle set
Garrick converts
Bear with us here, because this won't sound right. Aaron Woods at dummy half, gets the ball to DCE who grubbers shallow, the ball rolls into the Storm in-goal and Haumole Olakau'atu cleans up the rolling ball skilfully and scores out wide on the right side.
SCRUM MANLY - Pathetic attempt at a play-the-ball there. That was never going to be acceptable.
Garrick takes the ball nicely and falls into Coates who is looking at constellations
SCRUM MANLY - Olam hit hard and then Grant drops the ball at dummy half.
PENALTY STORM - Manly defence offside. Hughes quickly finds touch on halfway
Quick play-the balls, good metres up the middle, a few good hits, making metres out wide. Both sides doing as much moving around as possible to keep warm.
Meaney gets smashed after fielding that kick
No try, Coates clearly into touch before grounding the ball. Game is starting to open up
Off to the bunker. Checking to see if Coates scored. Ref initially ruled no try.
SCRUM STORM - Storm with the short drop out and Koula takes it near the sideline and is taken into touch.
Coates leaps to take the DCE bomb and as he lands he gets buried harder than asbestos at Brookvale Oval
Christian Tuipulotu with a good kick return, breaks through two tackles and makes a handy 25 metres
Solid opening set by Manly. No punches thrown either. Am I going to keep this up all game?
Storm kick off and no fights have happened yet!
Referees & scorers:
Referee: Todd Smith
Touch Judges: Jon Stone, Dave Munro
Video Referee: Ashley Klein
MELBOURNE STORM (24)
Tries: Jahrome Hughes, Jonah Pezet, Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Xavier Coates (2)
Conversions: Nick Meaney (2/4), Jonah Pezet (0/1)
MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES (6)
Tries: Haumole Olakau'atu
Conversions: Reuben Garrick (1/1)