Manly Sea Eagles vs Canberra Raiders highlights: NRL scores, blog

It went forward because he threw it forward. It looked pretty clear in the replays.

I'm a regular at Brookvale and believe that it is a terrific ground to watch football at close quarters. For example, the atmosphere at today's game was very enjoyable. Agree that in some sections of the ground spectator seating facilities are very poor and really unacceptable by today's expected standards. But equally concerning to me is the trashy game day experience provided by the frequent interjections, at full decibels,from the ground announcer, plus the silly music that automatically clicks in at every halt in play. What all this drivel has to do with the football has me perplexed!

Justice was ultimately done in this absorbing game. The Raiders received 7 penalties to zero in the 2nd half. Also Manly scored 4 tries to 3. Manly badly missed Tommy Turbo - his replacement Matty Wright badly lacks speed and is not up to 1st grade standard. It looks like Jorge Taufua will be out for the rest of the season - don't know who will replace him. Available options such as Jonno Wright or Matty Wright are journeymen who have frequently demonstrated they are not up to 1st grade standard.

Looks like Stuart's love for blaming everyone but himself and his team, has rubbed off on their fans. But I too would be disappointed if my team, as pre-season favourites, were sitting outside of the 8 after some predictable performaces.

First the referee killed the game. That was a win for Canberra and they literally destroyed the team that had the momentum. So many ruck infringements I reckon Staurt was right in that Teams are slowing down the raiders in this area. The strip on Jnr Paulo is like how can that not be a penalty. It was a strip for all money and with a guy like Paulo he wouldnt drop that ball at all. It was forced out of his hands. The pass from leilua was line ball. If you see where whitehead caught it to where leilua was standing it was directly in line. Again taufua went down at hat moment and momentum was all raiders. There was no stopping whiteead apart from one person te ref. Raiders had more missed opportunity in the second half then manly who only banked their luck on cherry evans kicking game. Manly will struggle unfortunately. The referee won them that match. I believe referees should ref proper for the team with momentum cos like this match manly tried their best to change the momentum but the raiders kept reversing it with the possesion they had.

Enjoy the beverages mate. If Taufua is gone I'd like to see Schuster get a run. But everything crossed that Jorge is ok. Knights definitely a banana skin. Hopefully Baz has them focussed all week for the short turnaround.

Thanks Ricky. You should put all of this on a memo to Archer on Monday

Cheers EJ, must have been hanging by a thread first time he went down. Knights won't be easy, classic trap for a side in re-build. Heart still a twitch, to the bar....

G'day JH, great to get a win at home today. If they can get over the Knights next week, they'll be entrenched in the 8. No concrete news on Jorge. Won't know until scans but reports it's an ACL. Which would be a tragedy.

Top arvo at Lottoland. Raiders gallant with a two man bench for most of match. Manly no second half penalties though - did the refs cop a tip at HT.... Rapana is one out of the box. Could easily have got Canberra home. Marty Kapow earning his coin in spades and F-Blake learning from close range, brilliant combo for Baz. Any news on Jorge T, fearing the worst, will be a massive loss.

Home ground advantage is not to do with conscious bias on the part of the referees but unconscious bias from crowd influence - there is a lot of good research in the US to support its existence. There is no conspiracy. Junior got stripped at the end and it was not called. People talk about a player having loose carry but no such term exists in the rules - I just checked and the term loose carry is just not there. As for penalty counts they mean nothing really. Are the penalties deserved is the question and also are the penalties being applied evenly? Manly deserved to win. While the Raiders came back well they were poor in the first half but Junior got stripped.

It doesn't. That was what is best described as a gratuitous comment made in disappointment.

Did it go back from his hands that is all that matters. Where he caught it is irrelevant. To be fair it is hard to tell for sure on television but it looked like it went back from his hands

No second half penalties and they got the "rub of the green"??? Pretty rough run mate. How does the state of Brookie Oval influence a result???

He had a great game. Probably deserved more reward for his ability to repeatedly pin the Raiders in goal during that second half.

BJ was about 5m out and Whitehead was almost in goal when he caught the pass. It was well forward.

Did Manly get a penalty in the 2nd half? Raiders got about 5 including a crucial one to send it to Golden Point. Obviously the refs missed the memo. Or have a funny way of going about it.

The Raiders first half was woeful and they deserved to be losing well going into HT. 2nd half they got a bit of luck and Manly maybe thought they had it wrapped up and didn't push as hard in the 2nd. Somehow got it to Golden Point, but Paulo losing the ball in the tackle was probably fitting given their performances this year. Manly then got their just victory. Positives for the Raiders would be the fight back given they were two players down. However, there is no excuse for that first half. Unfortunately the first half performance is more the norm for the Raiders this season than the second half performance has been. Maybe this will spur something in the Raiders and maybe they'll stop being paper tigers and play to their potential. Being waiting all season for it to happen though, so I'm not going to be holding my breath.

Funny, at gio Manly win on the back of 2 golden point ball stripped penalties. A few weeks later there is no call. Bet it would not happen to the Broncos or storm.