Monas re-ignited Manly's finals campaign - Ritchie

  • We had an issue with background services between march 10th and 15th or there about. This meant the payment services were not linking to automatic upgrades. If you paid for premium membership and are still seeing ads please let me know and the email you used against PayPal and I cam manually verify and upgrade your account.
  • We have been getting regular requests for users who have been locked out of their accounts because they have changed email adresses over the lifetime of their accounts. Please make sure the email address under your account is your current and correct email address in order to avoid this in the future. You can set your email address at https://silvertails.net/account/account-details
  • Wwe are currently experience some server issues which I am working through and hoping to resolve soon, Please bare with me whilst I work through making some changes and possible intermittent outages.
  • Apologies all our server was runing rogue. I managed to get us back to a point from 2:45 today though there is an attachment issue i will fix shortly. Things should be smooth now though

byso

First Grader
Monas re-ignited Manly's finals campaign - Ritchie

Dean Ritchie

Manly 21 Broncos 20

HE has taken a few kicks to the guts himself.

He was virtually kicked out of the club.

Yesterday, however, Manly captain Michael Monaghan produced the kick that re-ignited Manly's finals campaign.

No player has been under more pressure in the NRL than Monaghan.

After a match-winning 38- metre field goal yesterday to beat Brisbane at Brookvale Oval, Monaghan threw pressure back onto the Broncos.

Unwanted at Brookvale - then wanted again - Monaghan's form had slipped significantly over the past two months during a ugly contractual dispute.

But all that drama seemed a lifetime ago yesterday as Monaghan calmly kicked the field goal that helped his side to a stunning 21-20 win over the Broncos in front of more than 16,000 delighted fans.

"It came off pretty sweet," Monaghan said. "It was just good to get the win."

Indeed it was for Manly, who had lost five successive matches going into yesterday's game.

The victory pushes the Sea Eagles into sixth place and alleviates the pressure that had been building at Brookvale through recent times.

"It's been a tough five weeks," Monaghan said.

It was a cracking game of rugby league yesterday. Brisbane led 14-8 at halftime but should have been ahead by about 15 points given the chances they created.

But Brisbane gave Manly a sniff in the second half and the home side lifted.

"It was imperative we win today," said Manly coach Des Hasler. "We got off to a nervous start but we toughed it out, we played for each other and we deserved the win.

"We are sick and tired of excuses. We just knuckled down today."

Manly scored six minutes into the second half to level the scores before the Sea Eagles' fullback Brett Stewart put his side ahead with a try 11 minutes from fulltime.

Monaghan then kicked his field goal, allowing Manly to lead 21-14.

Brisbane scored with three minutes remaining when Brent Tate threw a miraculous flick pass to Justin Hodges, who crossed to inflict a final bout of nerves for Manly.

But unlike last week when beaten right on fulltime by North Queensland, Manly held tight in the dying moments to record a vital victory.

"We gave them confidence in the second half and they looked bullet proof," said Broncos coach Wayne Bennett.

"We got them back in the game and they grew from that. "[We had an] inability to make the right play at the right time."

Brisbane's sixth-tackle kicking options were poor.

But nothing was poor about Manly's second half. The confidence returned and the Sea Eagles can now look ahead with renewed confidence.

"I suppose we were down on confidence," said Manly veteran Steve Menzies. "We didn't have much ball in the first 20 minutes today but when we got some possession we started to play footy like we were at the start of the year."

The game yesterday was fast, entertaining and tough.

Brisbane's premiership charge has hit the slighest of speedbumps but there could be genuine concerns if beaten this coming weekend by St George Illawarra.

Manly 21 (A Alberts, C Hicks, B Stewart tries; L Williamson 4 goals, M Monaghan field goal) Brisbane 20 (J Hodges, K Hunt, B Seymour tries; B Seymour 4 goals) at Brookvale Oval. Referee: P Simpkins.
 

Staff online

Members online

Latest posts

Team P W L PD Pts
24 19 5 243 44
24 17 7 186 40
24 16 8 275 38
24 16 8 222 38
24 15 9 89 36
24 14 10 96 34
24 13 10 113 33
24 12 12 -40 30
24 12 12 -127 30
24 11 13 -1 28
24 11 13 -126 28
24 10 14 -70 26
24 9 14 -62 25
24 8 16 -168 22
24 7 17 -155 20
24 7 17 -188 20
24 6 18 -287 18
Back
Top Bottom