We take a look at some of the key stats to see how the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles players performed in their 36-30 win over the Melbourne Storm.
With 16 rounds gone, we also see where they stand on the NRL leaderboards across the game.
Tries
Tolu Koula’s second try in the 57th minute marked the Sea Eagles' 62nd try of the 2022 season, placing the team fourth overall in the NRL.
Only the Cowboys (65), Panthers (76) and the Storm (83) have scored more tries.
Koula, who scored his first try against the Wests Tigers back in Round 14, became the 20th tryscorer for Manly this season. That’s three more try scorers than Manly had last season with another eight games to be played in the regular season.
Full-back Reuben Garrick leads the way with 11 tries for Manly to sit equal fifth in the league.
Second-rower Haumole Olakau’atu and winger Christian Tuipulotu have eight tries each with Olakau’atu already equalling his try tally for 2021.
599 Not Out
Manly Captain Daly Cherry-Evans moved to within one point of 600 career points in the NRL, an astonish achievement for the half-back who played his 275th game against the Storm.
‘DCE’ filled in for kicking duties for Garrick, kicking four from eight goals.
Cherry-Evans has now scored 74 tries, kicked 139 goals, and an incredible 25 field goals.
Possession and Completion
The Sea Eagles dominated in possession against a lacklustre Melbourne side, finishing with 54%. The Storm, however, were more secure with their sets, ending the match with a completion rate of 84% (33/39 sets) compared to Manly’s 75% (30/40 sets).
Most Run Metres
Young gun Koula led the match for run metres with 195 metres from just ten runs, with 90 of those metres coming from his long-range try in the seventh minute.
Centre Morgan Harper trailed close behind with an impressive total of 142 metres from 14 runs and forward Martin Taupau brought up the top three with 128 metres from 14 runs.
Line Breaks and Tackle Breaks
Olakau’atu led the way with a whopping nine tackle breaks, followed by Koula (7) and Taupau, Tuipulotu and Harper on five.
Jason Saab (2), Koula (2), Harper (1) and Olakau’atu (1) also recorded line breaks.
Kicking
Cherry-Evans had the ball on strings as always, kicking for a big 333 metres from 13 kicks, taking his total for the season to 6,358 metres to sit second in the league.
In those 333 metres, there was a stunning 40/20 kick which really helped turned the momentum fully in favour of the Sea Eagles. The kick was his third 40/20 for the season (his 33rd in his career) to be placed equal first.
He also forced three drop outs to really stunt Melbourne’s attack. Garrick also managed to force one drop-out, which led to Cherry-Evans’ penalty goal in the 64th minute.
Defence
Our two defensive units in lock Jake Trbojevic and hooker Lachlan Croker finished level for tackles made with 25 each.
Prop Sean Keppie and second-rower Andrew Davey finished with 23 tackles each while eight other players managed to hit double digits, with three of them hitting 20 plus tackles as well.
Croker still leads the way for the Sea Eagles with 672 for the season, followed closely behind by Trbojevic with 626.
Tackles made: Manly 239, Melbourne 301
Missed tackles: Manly 40, Melbourne 42
Attack
All Runs: Manly 173, Melbourne 150
All Run Metres: Manly 1556, Melbourne 1309
Post Contact Metres: Manly 558, Melbourne 476
Kick Return Metres: Manly 261, Melbourne 87
Negative Play
Errors: Manly 14, Melbourne 8
Penalties Conceded: Manly 8, Melbourne 6
Ruck Infringements: Manly 1, Melbourne 1
