There were some impressive stats from the Sea Eagles' 42-6 victory over the Sydney Roosters on Friday night.
We take a look at the stats to see how the Manly players performed in the Elimination Semi-Final in Mackay.
Tries
The Sea Eagles came out flying in the first half, with three of their seven tries scored before the Roosters scored their only for the night.
Full-back Tom Trbojevic bagged himself a double to join Phil Blake from the 1983 season for most tries scored in a season by a Manly player with 27.
Winger Jason Saab also had a try in a stunning long-range effort to take his tally to 26.
Halves Kieran Foran (four tries this season) and Daly Cherry-Evans (nine tries) dived over the line for a four-pointer as well as centre Morgan Harper (eight tries) and utility Dylan Walker (five tries).
Possession and Completion
Similar to the scoreline, Manly led the match in possession percentage with 54% as well as the completion rate.
Coach Des Hasler’s men completed 31/39 sets for a completion rate of 79% compared to the Roosters’ 71% (30/42 sets).
Goals Converted and Points Scored
Winger Reuben Garrick slotted seven goals from seven attempts to finish with 14 points to take his season tally to 322 points (21 tries and 119 goals) with a conversion percentage of 82%.
The 119 goals also sees him move ahead of Adam Reynolds from the Rabbitohs for goals kicked this season, with Reynolds on 116 goals. The Souths halfback also sits in second behind Garrick for points scored with 256 points.
The 14 points also saw Garrick overtake Brett Hodgson (308 points) and leaves him 20 points behind Hazem El Masri (342) for total points scored in a season, including finals.
Attack
All Runs: Manly 184, Roosters 171
All Run Metres: Manly 1652, Roosters 1484
Post Contact Metres: Manly 513, Roosters 418
Line Breaks: Manly 7, Roosters 2
Tackle Breaks: Manly 38, Roosters 23
Kick Return Metres: Manly 190, Roosters 213
Most Run Metres
Tom Trbojevic led the way for the Sea Eagles in a game that saw nine players run for 100+ metres.
‘Turbo’ finished with 201 metres from 20 runs behind Roosters winger Daniel Tupou (220 metres).
Dylan Walker came in second with a stunning 160 metres from 12 runs followed closely by Saab, who had a phenomenal 151 running metres from just nine runs.
Other notable efforts included Garrick (143 metres from 13 runs), prop Martin Taupau (140 metres from 15 runs), lock Jake Trbojevic (119 runs from 16 runs) and prop Josh Aloiai (117 runs from 16 runs).
Try Assists
Five separate players registered a try assist against the Roosters.
‘Turbo’ set up one of the tries to take his total for 2021 to 28 (only five behind Cody Walker from the Rabbitohs), with Daly Cherry-Evans close behind him on 27 after also assisting with one.
Saab, Foran and Harper also grabbed a try assist.
Line Breaks and Tackle Breaks
The Manly players showcased their skills across the field. Tom Trbojevic broke the line on three occasions and brother Jake one. Saab, Cherry-Evans and Walker each managed to break the line once.
Garrick still leads the way this season with 36 ahead of Alex Johnston (Rabbitohs) and ‘Turbo’ with 33 line breaks.
Tom Trbojevic led the way with 10 tackle breaks followed by Dylan Walker (six), and second-rowers Josh Schuster (five) and Haumole Olakau’atu (4).
Trbojevic’s total of ten sees him in the top five in the NRL with 117 tackle breaks, only one behind Panthers winger Brian To’o. Garrick is close behind with 94.
Negative Play
Errors: Manly 9, Roosters 13
Penalties Conceded: Manly 8, Roosters 6
Ruck Infringements: Manly 3, Roosters 2
Defence
Similar to our last few matches, the Sea Eagles weren’t forced to make as many tackles as their opposition due to the possession percentage. The Roosters were forced to make almost 100 more tackles than Manly (374 to 272) and missed 15 more tackles compared to Manly (38 to 23).
Olakau’atu topped the tackles with 30 ahead of Jake Trbojevic and Taupau (29) and hooker Lachlan Croker (27).
Croker’s total of 27 sees him move into the top five for most tackles in the NRL this season with 935 tackles made.
Kicking
Cherry-Evans was phenomenal with boot to ball, kicking a total of 532 metres from 13 kicks for an average of at least 40 metres per kick.
Foran also got into the triple digits for kick metres with 130 metres from only three kicks.
For the season, Cherry-Evans sits in second behind Nathan Cleary from the Panthers for total kick metres with 9198 metres compared to Cleary’s 9649 metres.
The Manly halfback still sits equal first in the league for 40/20s kicked (3) and equal second in field goals kicked (2).
