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Defence, it seems, is optional these days. Not that anyone was complaining too hard: this was a belter of a contest, even if it looked a bit like an Under-20s game at times.
The net result was the first draw since Round 3 of 2020, with Newcastle and Manly fighting each other to a standstill in Mudgee. Both threw away double-digit leads: Manly went 10-0 ahead early but trailed 28-16 with eleven minutes to play.
Dom Young scored four and Jackson Hastings had a huge five line break assists as the Knights tore Manly’s line apart, but they wilted badly to allow three tries in twelve minutes.
A late cameo from Kaeo Weekes had been the catalyst, with a superb individual try and a vital try assist for Reuben Garrick, before Young leaped high above Garrick to square the ledger. Lachie Miller missed the kick to win it.
There was, as they say, plenty going on. Within four minutes, we had already seen one of the most bizarre tries of the year as Miller lost his bearings, allowing Haumole Olakau’atu to score unchallenged as the fullback defended his in-goal area.
Olakau’atu and Lachlan Fitzgibbon both spent time in the bin in the first half, Tyson Gamble departed with a HIA and there was what would have been one of the most controversial Bunker calls of the year, had Young not scored late.
Newcastle that they had equalised five minutes from time through Bradman Best – with a kick to take the lead – but the Bunker found a knock on that only they noticed. It was perhaps correct, but undeniably harsh.
We then got a Golden Point period without a single field goal attempt before there was a deluge in the second period. In the end, it would have been unfair to separate these two.
“I’m disappointed but as I said to the team, at 10-nil down had you said we’re going to walk away at 32-all and get Cherry-Evans to pull out three times from a field goal with someone pressuring him, I’ll take that,” said Knights coach Adam O’Brien.
Anthony Siebold cut a more disappointed figure.
“Probably lucky to get a point in the end,” he said. “We kept fighting but there were a whole heap of things we were a little bit off with.”
O’Brien dropped Dom Young last week, unhappy with his performance in their loss to the Dolphins in Round 3.
He brought in Greg Marzhew in his stead – of course, Marzhew never makes errors – and dropped the England international to reserve grade.
There was an element of logic to the decision, given Young wasn’t at his best and is joining the Roosters at the end of the year anyway, but there was also a strong sense of cutting off their nose to spite their face.
Young is one of the best attacking wingers in the world and possesses a combination of speed, size and elusiveness that basically nobody else has. Certainly, Newcastle don’t have it.
The winger seemed to take the demotion personally. Brought back due to an injury to Hymel Hunt, Young was exceptional. There was all the metres and carries that you expect from him, but also creativity and pure finishing.
His hat trick try was a perfect example of it all: he burned Reuben Garrick for pure speed, then had the wherewithal to wait up and find a pass, before staying alive in the play and being ready to finish when the ball came back.
Throw in that he’s basically unbeatable in the air – outleaping Garrick for his fourth – and it all adds up to an undroppable combination. Or so you might think.
O’Brien might take it as a victory that he’s challenged one of his stars and got a response. If that was the goal, then he deserves the credit. But if it was because he was leaving, then the mind boggles.
Manly’s defensive intent has been one of the most interesting parts of the early Anthony Seibold era. They’ve put a huge focus on contact and defending with power.
It has paid rewards for it with plenty of contact errors and that continued today, with several shots dislodging the footy.
Organisationally, however, there’s still a lot to be done. Manly’s first half was a cavalcade of bad reads: there was one from Christian Tuipulotu on an edge, another that allowed Jack Johns to waltz through the middle and a bad short side situation that was well-exploited by Jackson Hastings.
There’s no doubt that Manly will score points when given the opportunity, such is their offensive potency. There’s a lot to be said for arcing up physically, too, and that part is going well. But three of Newcastle’s tries involved wingers going over untouched, and that’s an ongoing concern at this stage.
They could all take a tip for two from Jake Trbojevic. He went 80 minutes in the middle and then produced multiple jarring shots in Golden Point that delivered field goal attempts to DCE.
Newcastle, it has to be said, weren’t much better. Miller, for all his excellence in the second half with the ball, managed to lose the tryline completely and was more than culpable in other tries. Their edge defence, which was tissue paper thin at times in 2022, isn’t much better in 2023.
It’s hard to be too critical when the players put in such herculean effort and deliver such an undeniably entertaining spectacle. Games like this are pure entertainment, for punters at least.
But spare a thought for the coaches. They looked fit for taking away at the end, and both will believe they could and should have won this game many times over.