Penrith’s Matt Moylan crashed the party of opposing Manly fullback Brett Stewart, as the Panthers came from behind to score an 11-10 NRL win over the Sea Eagles at Brookvale Oval on Monday.
Manly’s first loss in three games left them joint last on points with Parramatta.
Stewart appeared to have a mortgage on star billing after scoring two tries to become Manly’s outright all-time leading tryscorer.
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The Panthers trailed for 70 minutes of the game, but Moylan kicked a game-levelling penalty with just under eight minutes to go and then landed a 38-metre field goal, inside the last six minutes.
Feleti Mateo and Daly Cherry-Evans missed field goal attempts inside the last three minutes for Manly, who were outscored 7-0 in the second half.
Although Josh Dugan appears to have the inside running for the NSW Origin fullback spot, Stewart and Moylan both showed they have the class to step in if required.
Tied on 151 tries with former teammate Steve Menzies, 30-year-old Stewart took just four minutes to claim the outright Manly record with a trademark piece of support play after five-eighth Tom Symonds made a bust.
He pulled further ahead of Menzies in the 23rd minute when he managed to ground the ball for a second four-pointer despite having three defenders around him.
Stewart could have got the record even earlier, but just missed getting a fingertip on the ball after chasing through a kick into the in-goal area.
In between Stewart’s tries, Moylan produced a peach of a cut out pass to put winger David Simmons over.
Manly were good value for their 10-4 lead at the break, but Dallin Watene-Zelezniak scored a try to close the deficit to two points.
The Panthers continued to press through the second half, while Manly struggled to create chances and lost Symonds with what appeared to be a shoulder injury in the 53rd minute.
Penrith had winger George Jennings stretchered off with 13 minutes to go.
Moylan, who said his injured hand was feeling better this week, revealed he had got in plenty of field goal practise on Sunday.
“I probably kicked about 30 from about 40 (metres) out yesterday, but I didn’t hit too many of them. I probably only kicked about eight,” he said.
Panthers coach Ivan Cleary said his team were blown away early and he wasn’t unhappy to go in trailing by just six points at halftime.
“I thought in the second half our defence improved and we were able to build a bit of pressure, whilst our attack was a bit clunky at times,” he said.
Manly coach Geoff Toovey conceded it was one that got away and appeared to take a veiled swipe at the officials.
Asked where his side fell down Toovey said “in the ruck, I can’t figure it out.”
It was a bitter sweet night for Stewart.
“It’s obviously not the best result we wanted, but a pretty proud moment for me,” he said.
Cleary said Jennings had a suspected broken leg.
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