The chance of hosting a Week 1 final slipped through the fingers of the Manly Sea Eagles after suffering a heavy 40-20 loss to the Cronulla Sharks.
Manly had thought they had initially scored first when Lehi Hopoate got to a grubber kick first and despite it being initially awarded by Adam Gee, it was overturned with Hopoate knocking on.
The ball went up the other end quickly and Sione Katoa found his way to the corner to score, Nicho failed to convert. Things then looked up for the hosts as they were able to put two unconverted tries on the board in quick succession when Tommy Talau went over on the left and then Fulalalo won a battle in the air to score on the right.
The Sharks then took the lead back when the bunker gave the all clear to a Ronaldo Mulitalo try after some questions on whether the ball travelled forward or backwards. Things were unravelling for Manly as a late tackle from Matt Lodge put Cronulla into attacking position.
They couldn't score as they were denied by the officials after Sione Katoa wasn't able to get the ball down in the corner but they did finally get another four pointer on the stroke of half-time when Jack Williams crashed over under the sticks.
Second half didn't get better for the Sea Eagles as they couldn't take an advantage of an attacking set on the Sharks line after a high tackle penalty against Jesse Ramien as well as a Ronaldo Mulitalo knock on. The Shire side then went down the other end of the field and went bang bang with two more tries in a five minute period when Ronaldo Mulitalo picked up his second and a lack of defensive urgency from Manly let Daniel Atkinson through to ground a grubber kick.
Cronulla had opened a 20 point lead before a slight sniff of a comeback appeared for Manly when Haumole Olakau'atu crashed over and Reuben Garrick converted to close the gap down to 14 points.
The comeback hopes were dashed when the Sharks pushed the margin out to 20 when Briton Nikora scored the first of his double and then out to 24 after he picked up his second in quick succession.
A late consolation try to the Sea Eagles rewarded Tolu Koula for a strong game at fullback today despite the scoreline.
Next week, the Sharks will be wanting to use this confidence to take on Melbourne a side they've already beaten this season in their qualifying final whilst Manly will rue losing the home ground opportunity next week as they take on the Bulldogs at Accor Stadium.