It was another classic thriller against the Canberra Raiders on Friday night with a clutch field goal from Manly Warringah Sea Eagles captain Daly Cherry-Evans sealing a 19-18 victory.
We take a look at all the stats from the Rd 23 Telstra Premiership match and also see how the Manly boys are placed on the NRL stats tables.
Tries
Two of our three try scorers were from our forward pack, with centre Morgan Harper scoring the other, his seventh for the season.
Impressive second-rower Haumole Olakau’atu also scored his seventh try of the season and could have had another earlier in the match, only to be denied by a review.
Experienced second rower Curtis Sironen also dived over to score his first try of the season.
Three Manly players remain in the top five on the try scoring leaderboard, with wingers Jason Saab and Reuben Garrick equal third with 20 tries a piece followed closely by fullback Tom Trbojevic on 19.
All three will be looking to add to their tally and catch Alex Johnston from the Rabbitohs (24 tries) and the Storm’s Josh Addo-Carr (23).
Possession and Completion
The possession rate finished up fairly even at 52% - 48% in favour of the Sea Eagles. When looking at the completion rate, both teams were again evenly matched. The Raiders ended on 81% (34/42 sets) to Manly’s completion rate of 79% (34/43 sets).
Goals Converted and Points Scored
Garrick was accurate with the boot, kicking three from three for six points to take his personal total to 274 points (20 tries and 97 goals) to remain the NRL’s leading points scorer.
His nearest rival is South Sydney half-back Adam Reynolds on 234 points.
Attack
All Runs: Manly 205, Raiders 195
All Run Metres: Manly 1747, Raiders 1713
Post Contact Metres: Manly 513, Raiders 561
Line Breaks: Manly 5, Raiders 3
Tackle Breaks: Manly 51, Raiders 38
Kick Return Metres: Manly 236, Raiders 222
Most Run Metres
Two players managed to pass 200 running metres for the match and a whopping six more managed to crack the triple digits.
Garrick (244 metres from 26 runs) and centre Moses Suli (210 from 18 run) ed the way, with prop Martin Taupau showcasing his strength on the ball as always (150 metres from 16 runs).
Full-back Tevita Funa glided straight into the side, running for 152 metres from 17 runs, with interchange players Josh Aloiai (137 from 16) and Dylan Walker (129 from 15) close behind.
Try Assists
Saab, Cherry-Evans and hooker Lachlan Croker each recorded a try assist to take their tallies to five, 20, and seven respectively.
Tom Trbojevic still leads the side in this category, sitting in second place in the NRL with a total of 25 followed by Cherry-Evans in third place. The two still trail Cody Walker from the Rabbitohs on 32 try assists.
Line Breaks
Morgan Harper, Suli, Cherry-Evans, Olakau’atu and Funa all managed a line break each.
Garrick still leads the way on 34 followed by Johnston on 32 with ‘Turbo’ in fifth place on 20.
Tackle Breaks
Suli carried his fine form from last week’s win over Parramatta into the Raiders clash.
The hard running centre broke an astonishing 11 tackles to be level with Canberra’s Matthew Timoko.
Olakau’atu (8), Josh Schuster (6), Kieran Foran (5), Dylan Walker (5), Garrick (4), and Harper (3) also made a few tackle breaks for the Sea Eagles.
Negative Play
Errors: Manly 10, Raiders 9
Penalties Conceded: Manly 3, Raiders 1
Ruck Infringements: Manly 3, Raiders 2
Defensive Stats
Similar to last week, Manly finished the match with 30 less tackles to Canberra.
The Raiders made 381 tackles for an effective tackle percentage of 86.4. The Sea Eagles topped them with an effective tackle percentage of 89.1 and 351 tackles made.
Canberra also missed 51 tackles compared to Manly’s 38.
Lock Jake Trbojevic made a huge 47 tackles to take his season tally to 669.
Schuster wasn’t too far behind him, making 41 for the night for 445 for the season.
Croker, who leads Manly’s tackles count, had 39 tackles to take his tally to 843 for the season to sit seventh in the NRL.
Field Goals and Kicking
Cherry-Evans kicked the clutch field goal in the 78th to ultimately give Manly victory.
The brilliant half-back has now kicked two field goals for the season to remain equal first in the NRL alongside Sam Walker, Valentine Holmes, Reynolds, Mitchell Moses, Nathan Cleary and Corey Norman.
Cherry-Evans also had a successful night with the boot, making a whopping 608 metres from 19 kicks and two forced drop-outs forced.
‘DCE’ still sits equal first in 40/20s with Reynolds and Hunt on three.
Cherry-Evans (7304) is second on the NRL’s most metres kicked board behind Nathan Cleary from the Panthers.
As for forced drop-outs, Cherry-Evans has 13 for the season and his halves partner Kieran Foran has eight. They sit sixth and 15th respectively in the league.
