Andrew Pelechaty reviews the first draw of the 2023 season.
Result
Manly Warringah Sea Eagles 32
Tries: (6) Haumole Olakau’atu 3rd; Christian Tuipulotu 8th; Brad Parker 27th; Kelma Tuilagi 58th; Kaeo Weekes 66th; Reuben Garrick 68th
Goals: (4) Reuben Garrick 4th, 28th, 60th, 67th
Newcastle Knights 32
Tries: (6) Dominic Young 23rd, 32nd, 55th, 77th; Greg Marzhew 12th; Jack Johns 17th
Goals: (4) Jackson Hastings 19th, 25th; Lachlan Miller 33rd, 57th
Field Goal: N/A
Report
Manly Warringah opened the scoring in Mudgee, with Haumole Olakau’atu racing away with a 50-metre bust: a try seemingly from nothing.
Manly made it 10-0 in as many minutes when Christian Tuipulotu scored.
Taking advantage of Olakau’atu’s sin binning (for a professional foul), Newcastle struck back through Greg Marzhew. The Knights doubled up against a 12-man Sea Eagles when Jack Johns scored. Jack got one over his brother Cooper (who was playing for Manly), while Jackson Hastings converted to tie the scores at 10-10 after 20 minutes.
Bad news for the Knights, with Lachlan Fitzgibbon sin binned for a high tackle, but they hit the lead soon after through Dominic Young in the right corner.
Manly hit back through Brad Parker to tie the scores at 16-16.
Young scored his second try as Newcastle took a 22-16 half-time lead – again the Knights shifted to the right.
Newcastle went further ahead with an excellent 85-metre try, started and finished by Young, with some wonderful link play in-between.
Manly got back into the game when Kelma Tuilagi scored, trimming Newcastle’s lead to six.
Then Manly went ‘bang-bang’ to lead 32-28 – through tries to Kaeo Weekes and Reuben Garrick – with 12 minutes left.
Newcastle tied the game with two minutes left when Young brought up his fourth (off a Phoenix Crossland cross-field kick), proving that his spell in NSW Cup last week did him the world of good. Fitzgibbon missed the kick to send the game into Golden Point.
The Golden Point period went the full 10 minutes, with both Manly (in their second straight GP game) and Newcastle missing field goal attempts, ending a captivating afternoon of footy.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR POINTS
Embed from Getty Images3 – Dominic Young (Knights)
2 – Tom Trbojevic (Sea Eagles)
1 – Reuben Garrick (Sea Eagles)
