Manly have celebrated Tom Trbojevic’s successful return from injury with a 24-22 elimination-final defeat of Canterbury that hoists the Sea Eagles into the second week of finals and ends the Bulldogs’ Cinderella season.
Canterbury controlled long stretches of Sunday’s match at Accor Stadium and made life tough for Trbojevic as the superstar fullback came back from a much-discussed shoulder problem.
But when the game needed a hero, Trbojevic triggered the play that won Manly the game, the Sea Eagles shifting left and sending Tolu Koula over on the back of the centre’s 45-metre dash.
Reuben Garrick put Manly in front with his ensuing conversion, and Bulldogs five-eighth Matt Burton was unable to erase their lead despite two late attempts at a two-point field goal.
Manly now meet the Sydney Roosters for a semi-final at Allianz Stadium next Saturday, with Trbojevic set to line up despite landing awkwardly on his shoulder in the first half on Sunday.
“He’s fine. He’ll be right to go again,” Manly coach Anthony Seibold said after the win.
“It was a real finals football game, the scoreboard was close, the Bulldogs were probably on top for the bulk of the game.
“We just hung in and the longer the game went, the scoreboard didn’t get away from us. I was really proud of the guys.”
Viliame Kikau and Stephen Crichton were the architects of a 16-12 half-time lead that did not do justice to the Bulldogs, who rediscovered their physicality and made life hard for Trbojevic.
After a Trbojevic knock-on, Kikau offloaded for Jacob Kiraz to score, before bursting through the Manly fullback for his own four-pointer.
Trbojevic was again caught out of position ahead of the Bulldogs’ third, losing the foot-race to the ball as Crichton touched Burton’s kick down.
But after the break, Trbojevic began to go looking for the ball.
“He had another needle at halftime, but that was always planned,” Seibold said.
“He did land on it (the shoulder) in the first half … you probably saw that he got more involved in the second half.”
His side down four points in the final 10 minutes, Trbojevic threw the offload that sparked Manly’s raid down the left side, and a crucial try for Koula that caught the Bulldogs napping on the last play.
“They had one marker over-chased and then I thought the space was going to be up the middle and it closed pretty quickly,” said Manly captain Daly Cherry-Evans.
“Tom was good enough to get the ball and then everything that happened beyond that was awesome.”
Ben Trbojevic found Koula, who burned Toby Sexton and stepped around Connor Tracey on his way to scoring a classic finals try that sealed victory.
Manly five-eighth Luke Brooks was excellent in breaking his 229-game finals drought, darting upfield to put the Sea Eagles in position for Tommy Talau to score their opener in the first half.
Brooks then threw a flat ball for Cherry-Evans to score from a scrum set-play midway through the second and cut the Bulldogs’ lead to four points.
The loss ends a resurgent season for the Bulldogs, who were made to contend with a week in the headlines when Josh Addo-Carr tested positive to cocaine in a roadside drug test.
His replacement Jeral Skelton had a mostly solid afternoon, catching Crichton’s tap-on to build the Bulldogs’ lead in the second half.
But Manly’s late try left the Bulldogs to wonder what might have been following their first finals appearance since 2016.
“We came here with a really clear plan. I thought we were executing it for long periods of time,” said Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo.
“We knew we weren’t going to win every moment, but we probably just lost a few too many there, and they were big moments.”
