Great performances from milestone men Daly Cherry-Evans and Corey Waddell have capped a great night for Manly, dominating the three-time reigning premiers by 14 points at Brookvale Oval.
Manly were intent on celebrating the milestone of Daly Cherry-Evans breaking Cliff Lyons' mark of 309 club games in style. But, the Panthers had other ideas in the early exchanges. Penrith capitalised on an offside penalty and built field position down the Manly end. Dylan Edwards snuck out of acting half and found support in Brad Schneider to cross for the first try of the evening. Edwards converted from next to the posts for an early 6-0 lead.
The game then turned into a scrap after the early Schneider try, with both sides having attacking chances. Manly had the better of them, but execution against the top defensive sides again is proving to be a problem. Brian To'o almost made Manly pay but some brilliant defensive work in the 19th minute stopped the scoreboard ticking over.
After some defensive resilience down their own end. Manly finally took some advantage of field position when Luke Brooks combined with Tom Trbojevic. Turbo was able to get on the outside of Izack Tago and beat Edwards to cross for the home side's first try. DCE was able to bend it like Beckham to level the scores at six. They nearly grabbed a second but the final pass to Corey Waddell was put down. Capitalising on penalties, Manly added a penalty goal eight minutes from the break for their first lead of the evening.
We got a spicy bit of controversy when Tommy Talau attempted an intercept just before the break. Talau touched the floating pass while Penrith were on the attack, Todd Smith let the play run and Tolu Koula sprinted the best part of 95 metres to score. The decision to confirm the try has left everyone wondering what constitutes a knock-on in 2024 with the replays showing that the ball was probably knocked on. DCE converted for a contentious 14-6 lead at the break.
Despite things going against the premiers with contentious calls and Liam Henry leaving with a cat 1 concussive incident. They changed momentum quickly when Edwards scored a sensational individual try to open the second half. DCE tried to put boot to ball and Edwards raced the best part of 70 metres to score to reduce the gap to two.
With 25 to go, Manly built some great momentum in attack and Turbo turned the pass back on the inside to a juggling DCE who scored. On the ensuing set, Taniela Paseka busted the Penrith defence wide open. From there, Manly worked it right and DCE put boot to ball, Izack Tago lost the ball and the other milestone man in Corey Waddell (an Emu Plains junior) crossed in game 100 and it quickly became 26-12.
Penrith were out on their feet following a Waddell intercept and were struggling to get back in defence. A shift back to the right saw DCE find Ben Trbojevic who got a magical offload to Jaxson Paulo to score and put the match beyond the reach of the Panthers with 15 to go. Ben Trbojevic wanted to add to the fun, but the ball bounced around in the in-goal like a pin-ball and it was denied. Penrith capitalised when Daine Laurie combined with Garner to streak away before finding Edwards to reduce the margin to 14 points.
Penrith will have some injuries headed to the bye with Henry, Garner and Luai leaving the game under a cloud. Manly weren't escaping with Reuben Garrick leaving with a category 1 concussive incident early in the fixture. They will go to Auckland full of confidence.