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.
steveng
Roar Rookie
After this game the 'BUNKER' should be scrapped and demolished and never ever used again. What an absolute joke and what an embarrassment for the NRL and that includes the crowds. After a game like this, no wonder no one wants to go to any NRL games!!! That Peachey try was a ‘dead-set’ knock on it touched his fingers and they award a try, Wakers off side was also a joke, when in the Melbourne v Parra game Slater was allowed to score an exact and similar try and wasn’t ‘offside’. Where is the justice and consistency??? No wonder the crowds are voting with their wallets and feet!!!
Matt
Guest
Hilarious that people would now take down the Bunker for making a quicker decision. When they could see that Walker was offside - and he was - they called it. They took a couple of extra looks for butter fingers Uate, but they got that right too. They took the longest with Peachey, but I think even if it had gone up for review as No Try, there was nothing actually showing he touched the ball. T. R. Y. Happy Sunday Newspaper Day, then Happy Monday.
Wild Eagle
Guest
If this is the gold standard now for offside or forward passes then a huge number of passes each game will need to be called back. Anything flat will now by rights need to be pulled up if this is an example. One thing is for sure, any Penrith fan would expect this to be called a try if they were waiting for the bunker and it would be 4 points their way.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Mate - as I said the only explanation I can give is there was a shot available to the bunker that we didn't get on the broadcast. If there wasn't then it was a poor call and your question of "why now?" is very valid.
Big Daddy
Guest
I am listening to all the manly supporters winge. Read the paper tomorrow and it will still be Penrith 22-10. But their trip to Brisbane will end their season.
Wild Eagle
Guest
Extremely good summary Barry and unbiased , well done. I agree with all of your points here. Do you agree that Walkers no try would be a try thru this season we have just watched in any other game. I can recall no controversy during the season in this regard and why do they chose such a crucial game to offer a different interpretation? I think this made the last call on Peachys try harder to swallow and therefore the frustration. This is the best the Pennies forwards have played for a very long time so well done to them.
Albo
Guest
Yep ! Not to mention the forward pass for the first try that wasn't even sent upstairs ! But that is Melbourne where things are often seen differently ! The officials in the Panthers v Manly game were way more accurate tonight than the tribe in Melbourne.
Wild Eagle
Guest
Dumb response and cliched. Bad calls by refs are crucial in close games and can determine the result. If you don't see that as a problem good luck to you but anyone sensible does whoever they follow.
Rikko
Guest
When the sparrows get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to drop the ball and give away stupid penalties they deserve this. Bring back TOOVEY. So SIMPLE !!!!!
Fish
Guest
Unfortunately it won't be the last controversy. The Storm try of the year that shouldn't of been was a concern. Why wouldn't you go upstairs on that. It was a dogs breakfast. Glasby clearly offside. A review would of picked that up. Anyway.
Matt
Guest
Fantastic game of rugby league. Great spiteful footy. Hair on the back of my neck stuff. No real foul play to speak of, but the dislike between the teams was there for all to see. Love it. Well done Panthers for standing up to the fight only 7 days after having your pants pulled down. Obviously the draw is not out, but can we use the crystal ball to know Penrith have 6 days til next Friday night's game at Suncorp. The winner to go to a prelim at AAMI. I got a slight feeling the Storm would rather not play the Panthers.
BigJ
Roar Guru
Well I am really disappointed that my 2017 prediction for Manly didn't come to fruition, if youll remember last year i wrote an article stating that based on pattern Manly would make the gf this year But they now have broken a four decade streak for grand final appearances 77,87,97 and 07. The stats were in thier favour but not to be. Oh well i guess ill have to be satisfied with another Storm premiership
The Barry
Roar Guru
Agreed. I thought he touched it but I'm certainly a long way from 100% about it.
The Barry
Roar Guru
I know why we can't have punch ups any more...but you can't tell me that game wouldn't have benefitted from a bit of a stink early.
Zedman
Roar Rookie
Best of luck tomorrow Rene, another nail biter maybe. haha.
The Barry
Roar Guru
"were fantastic apart from the errors" I thought the same thing about the refs...
The Barry
Roar Guru
Yeah...Uate bounced the ball, it was blatantly obvious and that call shouldn't be included in any discussion about the refs, it was 100% correct. Peachey was a genuine 50/50...I THINK it touched Peachey's hand but I don't know how anyone could be definitive either way. The refs just can't win with that call. Overturn it and Panthers fans are screaming howler...allow it and Manly fans are blowing up. There's literally no correct decision to be made there. I have problems with the Walker try being overturned based on the angles I saw. It was way too close to over rule - unless the bunker had access to a camera shot that I didn't see. If there's no other angle it should have been a try.
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Guest
Despite all the whinging about the Peachey try involving a knock on there was no clear evidence from the camera angles available that he had touched the ball. The ball rebounds from his chest to his knee but the frames in between are obscured by other players so you can't see if he's touched the ball. The bunker can only rule on what they can see or can't see so there was not enough evidence to overturn the on field call of a try. I thought the Dylan Walker no try was a bigger surprise. He must have been only fractionally offside if at all.
Renegade
Roar Guru
Best time of the year, Zedman.... there's just something in the air during September and I'm pretty sure it's the smell of finals footy!
The Barry
Roar Guru
Just saw it...at full pace looked like he was offside but replay looked like a tough call