An ill-disciplined Manly Warringah Sea Eagles suffered a 34-26 loss to the Wests Tigers at Leichhardt Oval tonight in round 25 of the Telstra Premiership.
The Sea Eagles were in control of the game midway through the first half, racing out to a 16 point lead before errors and poor discipline proved costly towards half-time with Wests Tigers getting back into the game to trail 16-12 at half-time.
Manly were left with 12 men just before half-time when Ethan Bullemor was binned for a professional foul on the back of a string of penalties against the team.
The Sea Eagles' cause was not helped in the second half with Haumole Olakau'atu sin-binned for a high tackle and placed on report. The Tigers pounced to score back-to-back tries to take a 30-16 with 20 minutes left.
A high shot by Corey Waddell saw him become the third Manly player sent to the bin with 14 minutes to play before Luke Brooks and Olakau'atu combined to give Tom Trbojevic his second to make it 30-22.
Trbojevic then grabbed his hat-trick to get Manly back to 30-26 with 10 minutes remaining before Manly bombed a tryscoring opportunity with three minutes left after a break up the middle by Trbojevic as they chased the points.
The Tigers then scored near full-time through Samuela Fainu for the 34-26 victory.
"We were outplayed. We got what we deserved tonight,'' Manly Coach Anthony Seibold said.
"I thought in the efforts parts of the game and the discipline, they beat us. That was very disappointing."
Manly remain in seventh place on 31 points, just three ahead of eighth placed St George-Illawarra, with games against the Bulldogs (away) and the Sharks (home) remaining.
