Weak Tigers have no answers for Manly Magic

Embed from Getty Images

Wests Tigers v Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles

The Manly Sea Eagles have put on a show at Bankwest Stadium following their 40-6 demolition of a poor Wests Tigers side at Bankwest Stadium.

Despite the score line, it was actually the Tigers who were the dominant team across the first half hour of the contest and they opened the scoring after ten minutes when Luciano Leilua crawled his way to a loose ball in the in-goal area after a Luke Brooks kick was deflected. The Tigers actually could've extended their lead just shy of the half-hour mark when David Nofoaluma was denied for a clear obstruction when he had the chance to score in the corner instead deciding to come back inside but ran behind Luciano Leilua.

That was a major turning point because from there the Manly just dominated from that point with Daly Cherry-Evans and Tom Trbojevic dominating for the Maroon and Whites. The first of Manly four-minute treble came when Josh Schuster picked up a loose ball for the Sea Eagles and went through some poor defence before finding DCE who went through to score under the posts relatively untouched.

The fragility of the Wests Tigers middle defence was something that the Sea Eagles continued to exploit when Tom Trbojevic went through some poor defence and found DCE who was backing up in the middle to score untouched again. The Manly third try was almost a repeat of the second when Tom Trbojevic charged through the middle and found Daly Cherry-Evans who was set to score his third until he juggled the ball which gave the Tigers defence the opportunity to catch him so he found the unmarked Martin Taupau to score. Reuben Garrick had no issues converting all three tries from in front.

The Tigers needed to find answers in the second half but they continued to struggled right throughout the second half as the Sea Eagles kept up their dominance. Manly opened the second half scoring through a Reuben Garrick penalty goal to push the lead out to 14 points. The tries soon continued and it was the Tigers weak defence that continued to stutter.

Tom Trbojevic scored the opening try of the half when Daly Cherry-Evans again was able to find space in the Tigers defence and after finding Haumole Olakau'atu backing up, Tom Trbojevic took the final pass to score under the posts.

The edges of the Tigers defence were just as fragile as the Manly took advantage with Reuben Garrick strolling over out wide after the Tigers right side were caught napping before Jason Saab flew through the air to score over David Nofoaluma. Reuben Garrick's only misses off the boot came from the two tries out wide.

The final try for the Sea Eagles continued the Tigers defensive woes when a massive gap opened up for Kieran Foran to go through and score. Reuben Garrick's conversion pushed the score out to 40-6.

Next weekend, the Wests Tigers travel down to Wollongong to take on the St George Illawarra Dragons whilst the Manly Sea Eagles again travel to the NSW Central West this time to Bathurst to take on the Panthers on Saturday afternoon.