The Manly Sea Eagles have soundly beaten the New Zealand Warriors 32-6 to book their place in their second straight Grand Final.
You could see Manly were clicking right from the kickoff while the New Zealand Warriors looked a little shaky.
The Warriors combination’s just didn’t gel and as I in my match preview, I thought the addition of McKinnon and the loss of Hohaia really took something away from the Warriors around the ruck.
They just seemed to lack that bit of extra skill and ball playing that they got with Henderson, Fien and HoHaia working as a combination.
Manly were in control at half time with three tries to nil, but missed goal kicks saw Manly only take a 12 point lead into halftime.
After the break however, Manly really stepped up and at one point looked like they could have put 40+ on the Warriors.
The Manly defense was outstanding and just gave nothing for the Warriors to work with, while Jamie Lyon played his best game by a mile since returning to the NRL.
The Sea Eagles will be sweating on the fitness of Matt Orford who left the field late in the game with an ankle injury, and Steve Matai looked to aggravate his neck injury which I’m pretty sure is a similar injury to what Brent Tate has in that the neck injury gives him terrible pain in his shoulder. He should be right for next week though.
As for the Warriors, they have played about 3 months of sudden death football and can be proud to have made it this far.
