Manly Sea Eagles

Manly were gallant in defeat to South Sydney last start given they played majority of the game with only 12 men, but their overall slide in the past fortnight has coincided with injuries in the backline, none more so than Tom Trbojevic.

The Wests Tigers will take plenty away from their six-point defeat to the Dragons, particularly around the key stats areas they were able to win during the match without being able to ice the moments when it mattered. 

Walker scored a try and laid on two others in his milestone match as the Rabbitohs overpowered a Manly side that battled bravely after Karl Lawton was sent off in the ninth minute.

Lawton lifted Souths skipper Cameron Murray above the horizonal and into a dangerous position and seemed resigned to his fate as he walked towards referee Grant Atkins to learn his fate.

The Rabbitohs opted to take the penalty goal for a 2-0 lead but it was the 12-man Sea Eagles who grabbed the game's opening try through Kieran Foran.

The last time they locked horns it was the Rabbitohs ending Manly's 2021 season with a comprehensive 36-16 preliminary final victory but much has changed at Redfern since late September.

The departures of supercoach Wayne Bennett, premiership-winning halfback Adam Reynolds and rep centre Dane Gagai have taken some adjustment and Latrell Mitchell's injury has left them without their most dangerous attacking weapon.

Talakai was virtually unstoppable as he scored two tries and laid on three others in arguably the best 40 minute display by any player this season as the Sharks raced to a 32-0 half-time lead.

The Sydney-born Talakai, who has pledged his World Cup allegiances to Tonga, also produced three line breaks, two line-break assists, seven tackle breaks and three off-loads while carrying the ball 202 metres in 13 runs at left centre.

Cherry-Evans and Foran had two try assists and three line break assists between them while the skipper's kicking game tormented the Titans' back three all night.

In front of a raucous home crowd of 16,220 it was Cherry-Evans who got the ball rolling in the 12th minute with a deft grubber for Haumole Olakau'atu to score.

The lead was doubled 10 minutes later when Jake Trbojevic and Kieran Foran combined on the left edge to give Reuben Garrick a saloon passage to the line.

Stand-in fullback Reuben Garrick got the job done for a Manly side that easily accounted for a disappointing Knights outfit.

The Titans had a more eventful evening, luckily dodging a couple of sin-bins as well as a now-infamous pitch invader, eventually going down 26-20 at home to the Eels after a high-scoring four-point loss to the same side in round one. 

In heavy rain in Newcastle, the home side looked to have scored first through Dom Young but the try was overturned for Tyson Frizell's lead run taking out Kieran Foran.

Instead Manly scored the only two tries of the opening half with Dylan Walker's short ball helping Andrew Davey over and a pinpoint Daly Cherry-Evans kick sitting up nicely for Morgan Harper and a 10-0 lead at the break.

A series of ruck penalties and set restarts given away by the Sea Eagles invited the Knights to attack after the resumption and Kalyn Ponga crossed after a nice sequence of offloading.

The match was evenly poised at halftime, with the Sea Eagles leading 10-6, but Cherry-Evans took control in the second half and kicked a 20:40, a 40:20 and a late field goal, while also laying on two tries with kicks.

The Raiders paid a high price for errors and penalties near their own line in the first half and while they finished with 24 offloads to Manly's seven, the Green Machine rarely threatened in attack.

The Roosters kept most of their big guns on ice through the trials, with many of them working back from injury, and it showed in round one with the team struggling for rhythm against an energetic and disciplined Newcastle.

Manly took the opposite path, giving the likes of Tom Trbojevic and Daly Cherry-Evans big minutes in the pre-season but they still had no answers to a dominant Penrith side in round one. 

Saab – like most of his teammates – had a tough start to the season out at Penrith, with the premiers not skipping a beat despite the absence of Nathan Cleary.

Saab in particular was targeted, being forced into a massive eight kick defusals and being repeatedly pinned inside Manly's back left corner, finishing with just 55 metres and no busts.

"It was a tough game, they had a game plan and it worked for them but it was a good lesson for me," Saab said.