Manly march on with another home win over depleted Bunnies

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Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles v South Sydney Rabbitohs

The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles have claimed a critical 18-point victory over South Sydney who suffered yet another critical injury blow to new recruit Brandon Smith.

It was a tense opening 15 minutes, but Manly were starting to dominate the territory and eventually cracked the South Sydney edge. Following some quick hands out to their left hand side saw a nice interchange of passes that sent Reuben Garrick across after 17 minutes.

Manly were making further in-roads in the South Sydney defence. Following a nice roll-on spurred on by Lehi Hopoate, the hosts went to the skies and Tom Trbojevic and Alex Johnston jostled for possession. The Sea Eagles won that battle and Turbo charged across on the ensuing play.

A critical out of play penalty against the Rabbitohs proved costly when Manly added their third try. Some deceptive play from DCE and Luke Brooks shifted the Souths defence too far right. Garrick had the instinct to come back on the inside and cross for his 20th double. That left the score at 14-0 at half-time with the winger's goal kicking a little troublesome.

Souths' disciplinary issues continued in the second half after Tallis Duncan was judged to have escorted a defender off the ball. Manly got their reward when Tommy Turbo continued his dominant game at centre, weaving through traffic to go over.

Manly burnt South Sydney for speed when they had Jason Saab burn Isaiah Tass for speed before linking up with DCE and he goes across for try number five. He grabbed the corner post as a crutch to resemble his elderly status in the game in appreciation for the annual Try July celebration.

Some rare possession for the Rabbitohs off the back of a penalty gave the visitors their first try of the contest. Some nice sliding shape in attack saw Duncan charge across on the left edge. He added a second mere minutes later and the Rabbitohs were coming to get the Eagles.

Souths didn't offer too much after that point and suffered a further blow when new recruit Brandon Smith went straight up the tunnel with an ankle complaint. The visitors added a late consolation try at the end of the game when Isaiah Tass capitalised on a great Jack Wighton grubber to put Souths within two possessions. Manly did claim a late try to rub some salt into the wound when Tolu Koula intercepted a loose pass to seal the game.