Manly Sea Eagles kept their finals hopes alive with a 24-18 win over St George Illawarra Dragons at WIN Stadium in front of 14,872 fans on Saturday night.
The Sea Eagles celebrated Daly Cherry-Evans 300th with a win and broke their 20-year hoodoo down in Wollongong and it kept them in touch with the top eight and set up a frantic final six weeks.
Dragons struck first off a few back-to-back sets. Talatau Amone took the ball to the line well, fed Francis Molo who streamed through the gap and made it 6-0 for the hosts.
The hosts extended their advantage to eight from the tee. Zac Lomax sent the ball through the posts to continue a strong start from the Dragons who looked to play spoiler on the milestone occasion.
Sea Eagles had to do a lot of defending but once they got some ball, struck back. Jason Saab strode confidently down the wing before he flung it to Tolotau Koula to go over.
The visitors were well into their rhythm now. They got field possession after Jacob Liddle played the ball the wrong way then Haumole Olaku'atu strolled through to make it 12-8.
Coming out of the break, the Sea Eagles felt just fine. They just rolled away from their end, started by a Josh Schuster pass then ended with Reuben Garrick who made it 18-8 and silenced the crowd.
Dragons had some concerted possession on the Sea Eagles line including a very close decision to chalk off a four-pointer to Dan Russell. The hosts were very clunky in their attack and handed it over easily.
The Sea Eagles piled on the misery straight away. They went to their pet play which was to give Saab space on the right wing. He just stretched out and beat the chasing defense to stroll over.
Dragons needed something quickly and it came from Billy Burns. He was able to scoop up the grubber kick from Ben Hunt to score in the left corner. Lomax converted to make it 22-14.
The task got harder for the Dragons when Jack De Belin was sin-binned for a hip drop earlier in a set. They still put in a good effort and brought themselves closer through a Tyrell Sloan four-pointer.
It was sealed by a dumb play from the Dragons. Hunt tried to slice through, offloaded to Zane Musgrove who was deemed out of play. Garrick stepped up to pilot home the penalty goal for the Sea Eagles and make it 24-18.