Wests Tigers have caused one of the biggest boilovers of the NRL season to end Manly’s top-four hopes and boost their prospects of avoiding a third straight wooden spoon.
With five-eighth Lachlan Galvin underlining why he should win the Dally M Rookie of the Year, the Tigers roared back from an early 16-0 deficit to register a rousing 34-26 triumph.
Galvin should collect the rookie gong at the Dally Ms next month after playing the entire season but a two-game ban for dangerous contact will mean he is ineligible so Parramatta’s Blaize Talagi, Melbourne speedster Sua Fa’alogo or Canberra’s Ethan Strange will get the award.
The 18-year-old Tiger has been better in 2024 than all of them – being ruled ineligible on the back of a two-game ban is harsh for the main award, but for the minor awards it should be scrapped.
The upset win means the Tigers can palm off the spoon to Parramatta when they meet them in the final round while the Sea Eagles can forget about sneaking into the top four and will likely make up the numbers in the playoffs after finishing seventh or eighth.
Making matters worse, they face the in-form Bulldogs and Sharks to finish their regular-season campaign.
Table of Contents
1. Sea Eagles self-combust
A 16-point lead after 22 minutes does not mean you have won a game in the modern NRL landscape but you have to play pretty badly to lose from there.
And the Sea Eagles were woeful after they raced in three early tries at Leichhardt Oval on Thursday night from Jason Saab, Lehi Hopoate and Tom Trbojevic.
“We were outplayed and our discipline let us down,” coach Anthony Seibold lamented. “We gave six yardage penalties which piggybacked them down the field. It was a really disappointing night.
“We got what we deserved ultimately. In the effort parts of the game and in discipline, they beat us.
“We were outplayed and that was disappointing because we had a whole heap to play for.”
Lachlan Galvin is tackled by Haumole Olakau’atu. (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
A soft try to Api Koroisau and another to Heath Mason should have given Manly the mid-game wake-up call but their discipline went out the window.
Ethan Bullemor paid the price when he was sin-binned four minutes from half-time for his team’s repeated infringements and by the time he came back, Alex Seyfarth’s try through a porous middle third defensive line had the Tigers up by two.
Haumole Olakau’atu was perhaps unlucky to be binned for a borderline high shot soon after Manly had returned to a 13 on 13 scenario.
Latu Fainu and Solomona Faatape scored while Olakau’atu was off to put Wests up by 14 before Tom Trbojevic hit back to give Manly a fighting chance.
Corey Waddell became the third Sea Eagle sin-binned for a high shot on Solomon Alaimalo but Taniela Paseka could count himself lucky because his contact in the same tackle was more forceful but he was spared any punishment.
Trbojevic notched his hat-trick to make it a four-point deficit heading into the final 10 minutes and they looked set to steal victory in the 77th minute when Trbojevic broke free but Saab spilt a simple pass with the try line in sight for the fleet-footed but butter-fingered winger.
Samuela Fainu barged through inept defence in the dying seconds to kick-start celebrations in Leichhardt, the inner-west and outer west of the joint-venture’s various regions.
And as he’s done many times in his career, poor old Manly five-eighth Luke Brooks trudged off Leichhardt Oval on the end of a losing scoreline, albeit for the first time while not wearing the home team’s colours.
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2. Tigers can dare to dream of no spoon
Wests Tigers are one win away from offloading the wooden spoon to Parramatta.
On the back of their upset win over the Sea Eagles, they have the bye in Round 26 before facing the Eels in the final round at Campbelltown.
Unless the Eels can upset the Broncos in Brisbane on Friday night or the Dragons next week, the most unwanted trophy in the premiership will be on the line when the cellar dwellers face off.
After two straight years of finishing last with just four wins, the Tigers have already exceeded that low benchmark as this victory was their sixth for 2024.
“They’re tough to defend. For us to fight to the death at home, I just told them I’m so proud of them,” proud coach Benji Marshall said.
“We had a team of kids and a few older blokes.
“We’re starting to find a little bit of what works for us.”
They will have to finish the season without veteran half Aidan Sezer who injured his shoulder against Manly and Marshall said it didn’t look good.
3. Benji comes full circle with Galvin
When Benji Marshall was making his Hall of Fame speech 24 hours earlier, he praised his first NRL coach Tim Sheens for believing in him even when he was an erratic young five-eighth whose flamboyant play sometimes led to passes over the sidelines.
He has a similar situation on his hands now he’s a coach with Lachlan Galvin, who made exactly that error in the first half of Thursday night.
But he also came up with several brilliant plays and the harder you try, the luckier you get, as evidenced by his grubber midway through the second half rebounding for fellow young gun Latu Fainu to score a crucial try.
He then backed that up with a mongrel of a floating kick which drifted across the field for Solomona Faatape to touch down after a fortuitous bounce.
“He’s just one of those kids that’s got raw talent,” is how Tigers captain Api Koroisau described Galvin. “Not flustered by what happens. When the game’s on the line he’s one of those guys who wants his hands on the ball.
‘It’s great to play with someone like that, especially at the age of 18. Sometimes they can go quiet or go missing but he just takes his opportunities.”
With Heath Mason showing plenty of potential as Jahream Bula’s understudy at fullback, these Tigers cubs are the future of the club, along with Samuela and Sione Fainu in the pack.
Mason may struggle to get a regular starting spot next year once Bula returns from injury and Jarome Luai slots into the halves with Galvin but it’s been a long time since Wests have a genuine surplus of talent rather than scratching around to find enough players of first-grade quality to form a team.
3. Forget top four, Manly no certainty for playoffs
Manly went into this game with a slight chance to finish in the top four if the Sharks or Roosters slipped up in the final few rounds.
When they were up 16-0 early, they were just one point off fourth spot on the live ladder but the only ladder that counts is the one with the full-time scoreline.
The Sea Eagles can now forget about a double chance in the playoffs and could theoretically still miss the cut if they go down to the Bulldogs and Sharks while the Dragons and Dolphins finish with a bang.
At their best throughout the year, Manly have looked like a team that (if you squint) you could see them making a deep run in the playoffs.
But too often they have gone missing in matches and there has been no more embarrassing loss for them than this one, coughing up a 16-point lead to the team running last.
5. Bird not the word
Reports have emerged that the Wests Tigers are considering making a play for Jack Bird.
In a word: Why?
Have they not learned from their very recent and very bitter past of paying too much for too long on players past their prime.
The 29-year-old Dragon was an impactful player at the start of his career at the Sharks nearly a decade ago.
But unfortunately he hasn’t been the same since his injury-riddled stint at Brisbane.
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Bird has been decent filling in at centre and in the back row and now at five-eighth but he’s an interchange utility at best these days rather than a regular starter.
No longer fast enough for the outside backs, not quite big enough to last in the pack and lacking the creativity to be a first-choice playmaker.
If the Tigers can get him on a short-term bargain basement deal, then they should proceed but with the Dragons telling Bird he is free to leave a year early, he will want a multi-year deal and the Tigers can’t afford to repeat the mistakes of the past by shelling out big bucks for what a player used to be worth.
The Kick: Hamole shouldn’t have been binned
Haumole Olakau’atu was extremely unlucky to be marched to the sin bin by referee Peter Gough after smashing Tigers fullback Heath Mason in the 56th minute.
The Manly forward flattened the rookie but although it was a heavy hit, it was not a shoulder charge, nor was it high.
At worst, there was some incidental neck on neck contact as he collided into the young Tiger on a kick return.
“There’s direct contact with the head. He’s actually coming up into contact. It’s on report, it’s in the bin,” Gough said as he banished the NSW forward.
“I thought it was contact to the shoulder,” said Cooper Cronk on Fox League.
“Yes, it was aggressive, yes it was forceful but I’m not sure if this makes contact directly to the head as the referee indicated.
“I think that’s shoulder on shoulder.”
Olakau’atu was sprayed by a spectator as he walked up the players’ tunnel and momentarily reacted before going on his way.
After copping a three-game suspension in Origin III – even though he wasn’t playing – for getting involved in the sideline skirmish, it looks like he’s learned that lesson.
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