Manly beat Woeful Wests
Manly 19 - Tigers 8
In a stop start affair affected by shocking weather conditions at Leichhardt Oval last night, an injury ravaged Manly overcame a jittery Wests Tigers outfit to take the honours.
In what was never an exciting affair, the Wests Tigers simply gifted ball to the Sea Eagles at every opportunity. Dropped ball from the scrum base, from attempted tackle busts and just generally when accepting even the simplest passes.
For mine, it felt like the bad old days of the Wests Magpies - with Tommy sitting on the sidelines barking instructions with a cigarette in mouth. While the slippery ball was hard to contain, Manly did the better job and did enough to hold the Tigers out.
For the Eagles, there wasn't a lot of sweeping attacking movements, once again probably due to the conditions - but their accuracy from kicks allowed several impressive tries to be scored. Lyon was once again amongst everything for the Eagles, and Travis Burns back at pivot looks to be the best option.When Orford comes back they will certainly grow an extra leg.
Monaghan played solidly and kicked well, the Eagles are certainly lucky to have him on board - although he must cut his referee bashing out of the game. In Geoff Toovey like style, Monaghan regularly approaches the ref and gives him an ear full. Simply not smart, and needs a better approach.
In the forwards Manly relied on Kite and Watmough - the other forwards were a little sloppy. Rose made regular errors and Hall took an eternity to settle in.
In Tiger land, it must have been an unhappy dressing room - even Hodgson who is regularly the best for the Tigers, had an poor game with dropped ball and poor positional play - at one stage actually running into team mate Moody and taking them both out. Their best came from Benji who was always dangerous in attack and much in the mould of Jason Smith is forcing players to hang off him waiting to pick what he will do.
I also thought that Dean Collis tried hard all game without support or reward, as did Farrah. The only light at the end of the tunnel is the Tigers play the Eels next week, and on current form from Parramatta it might just be the medicine the Tigers need to play themselves back into the groove.
WESTS TIGERS 8 (R Farah try; B Marshall 2 goals)
MANLY 19 (M Ballin M Robertson A Watmough tries; J Lyon 3 goals; M Monaghan field goal)
Referee: T Archer
Crowd: 15,185 at Leichhardt Oval
