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The Penrith Panthers have booked their spot in the semi-finals with a controversial victory over the Manly Sea Eagles at the Sydney Football Stadium.
» Click here to read the full match report
Final score
Manly Sea Eagles 10
Penrith Panthers 22
The Manly Sea Eagles will play sudden death football for the second week in-a-row, but this time, the Penrith Panthers also put their season on the line in the second elimination final. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 7:40pm (AEST).
The Sea Eagles came into their Round 26 clash, also against the Panthers with everything to play for. A loss would have left them facing elimination from the finals, should the Dragons have gotten over the Bulldogs on Sunday.
That didn’t happen in the end, but Manly didn’t know that and they played like their season was on the line. After a couple of flat-looking weeks, they came firing out of the gates.
When Manly sat in the top four earlier in the season, their performances were built on defence. It seemed to be a motto of doing the little things right and the big picture will follow, and at an increased intensity, that’s exactly what happened last weekend.
Their defensive intensity was superb from the opening set and they followed it up with some superb attacking play. The patience they had been lacking returned and Daly Cherry-Evans returned to something near top form.
The Manly half, along with Jake and Tom Trbojevic are the keys to them getting over the line against Penrith for the second week in a row.
Penrith won a lot of games through the second half of the season, rocketing from the bottom to the top and finishing in seventh spot.
At one point, it looked like they were going to sneak into the top four despite not playing well, but losses to the Dragons and Manly in the last fortnight of the season ruined that, as they slumped to seventh.
The loss to the Dragons stung the Panthers, and they never got back up for last week. Being understrength, with Matt Moylan and Dylan Edwards out didn’t help, but with Moylan likely to miss the rest of the season, it’s something the Panthers have to get used to.
Edwards may be back this week, but their forwards are going to have to aim up against Manly’s intimidating pack. With Martin Taupau, Jake Trbojevic, Darcy Lussick and off the bench Brenton Lawrence and Addin Fonua-Blake setting the bar high, they must get it right.
This game is going to be won up front, and if Manly are allowed to start the same way they did last week, it’s going to be carnage, with Cherry-Evans and Blake Green showing time and time again this year they know how to control a game by forcing dropouts.
Prediction
The Sea Eagles won’t be able to dominate like they did last week, but they should still do more than enough to get the win against an out of sorts Penrith side, even if Edwards does play.
Sea Eagles by 10.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of this elimination final from 7:40pm (AEST) and don’t forget to add your own comments in the section below.