Manly beat Melbourne in slug-fest

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Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles v Melbourne Storm

Manly dominated field position in the second half to ensure they came away with two vital competition points against Melbourne in a grinding contest at 4 Pines Park.

Points were hard to come by and for Melbourne, so was momentum which allowed Manly to get into a groove and pile on the pressure to help them regain some solid form.

Manly got on the board first in the 12th minute when a Daly Cherry-Evans chip back infield found Tom Trbojevic following through and he regathered before the ball went dead, grounding it for a cheeky but clever try. Cherry-Evans added the extras from in front.

Five minutes later, a Cameron Munster drop out failed to travel 10 metres and Cherry-Evans opted to kick a penalty goal, extending the Manly lead to 8-0.

The Storm finally struck back in the 20th minute when William Warbrick got the ball in space 30 metres from the Manly line and he raced over in the corner to score. Munster failed to convert.

Manly received back-to-back penalties in Melbourne's half and Cherry-Evans slotted another penalty goal in the 32nd minute. With 25 seconds left in the half, Ray Tuaimalo-Vaega was given 10 in the bin for a late shoulder charge on Munster. Jonah Pezet kicked a penalty goal and at halftime the Sea-Eagles were up 10-6.

Seven minutes into the second half, Aaron Woods claimed, and was even awarded a try after he grounded a grubber by Lachlan Croker into the Storm ingoal, but the bunker reviewed and found that Jahrome Hughes, while fumbling the ball, accidentally got downward pressure on it, just, denying the try. However, in the lead up to that play, Cherry-Evans was hit late in the back by Tui Kamikamica, earning him 10 in the sin-bin as well. Cherry-Evans had a shot at the penalty goal, but it struck the upright and bounced back into the field of play. Manly regathered but Trent Loiero's tackle was deemed to be a hip drop and Cherry-Evans kicked another penalty goal.

An Illegal tackle by Jake Trbojevic  allowed Pezet to kick a penalty goal to get the margin back to 4 points.

In the 58th minute, the stop-start nature of the game due to the amount of ill-disciplined play resulted in referee Adam Gee issuing warnings to both sides. On the first tackle after play resumed, Justin Olam hit Cherry-Evans late and he was given ten minutes in the bin.

The game started to get very sloppy from here on in from both sides, but Manly managed to capitalise, eventually, when a bomb by Cherry-Evans was spilled by Xavier Coates close to his own line. The ensuing set saw Taniela Paseka receive a crash ball and as he fell into the tackle, he popped up a great ball to Croker who dived over between two defenders to score a soft but good try. Cherry-Evans converted to give Manly an 18-8 victory.