Sea Eagles scrape home over Warriors

T-Rex took down The Beast but it was little Trent Hodkinson who was again Manly's
hero with his late field goal handing the Sea Eagles a thrilling 19-16 NRL win over
the Warriors at Brookvale Oval on Saturday night.
Reviving memories of his round-15 heroics when he nabbed two late one-pointers to
steal a win over South Sydney, Canterbury-bound Hodkinson again calmly potted the
crucial point with four minutes remaining to break the deadlock.
Skipper Jamie Lyon added a penalty after fulltime to extend the margin to give
Manly's finals hopes a boost as they leapfrogged the Warriors and Sydney Roosters to
move up to fifth.
Billed as the 'Monster's Ball' with Tony 'T-Rex' Williams going up against Manu "The
Beast' Vatuvei, it was the hulking Manly winger who stole the show with a try either
side of halftime.
The early signs weren't good for the home side with a Maloney penalty goal and
game-ending knee injury to Shane Rodney within the first 10 minutes.
But a Lyon bust provoked the Sea Eagles into action and centre partner Steve Matai
scored on the next play, Manly looking likely again when rookie winger Bill Tupou
spilled a simple clearing kick on his own line.
Tupou made amends with a try-saving tackle on second-gamer Michael Oldfield, the
importance of that play growing just a minute later when a shanked Maloney bomb put
the Warriors ahead.
With the wickedly spinning kick heading closer to the sideline than the tryline,
Tupou took advantage of a fortuitous bounce before finding Simon Mannering who found
Maloney in support for an 8-6 lead.
Williams answered with his first try of the night, his dominance over Vatuvei
emphasised shortly after when the giant Warriors winger spilled the ball in front of
his own sticks.
The Warriors survived and then prospered via a Mannering try, the skipper running
over some soft Glenn Stewart defence for a 14-10 halftime lead.
Stewart - who set up Williams' first try with a clever offload - repeated the dose
for his second to level it up at 16 apiece, referee Jared Maxwell then making a
brave call to ignore the video referee with a double movement call on Michael
Robertson which had plenty of doubt.
There was no doubt when Ben Matulino failed to score, with the front-rower unable to
get the ball around his backside as he juggled a Vatuvei pass and desperately tried
to avoid the corner post.
A dramatic finish was kick-started by an ugly knee injury to Michael Luck, the
Warriors lock stretchered off in what looked a serious state as Anthony Watmough too
made his way up the tunnel with an ankle ailment.
Maloney's second shank of the night saw the first field goal attempt miss by a wide
margin, while Hodkinson's first attempt shaved the right upright.