Manly setup grand final rematch with Melbourne Storm
September 27, 2008
Manly has matched Melbourne Storm with a convincing win over the New Zealand Warriors to move into next Sunday’s NRL grand final. This will be a rematch of last year’s grand final which was won by the Melbourne Storm.
Last night the Storm convincingly defeated the Cronulla Sharks 28-0. Manly almost matched that winning margin with a 32-6 win in tonights match.
Manly took a 12-0 lead into the halftime break. This came through tries to Brent Stewart and Steve Menzies. The try to Menzies came after some great leadup work as Manly moved the ball through plenty of sets of hands to create an overlap on the right side of the field. The ever present Menzies was there to score the four pointer.
Another entertaining try was scored by Manly in the second half. It involved a between the legs pass for Matai to score. Overall the Manly team dominated as you can see from the scoreline. They attacked with very few errors and had a great completion rate and also their defence was solid.
Manly were ahead 32-0 before the Warriors finally scored their first points in the 75th minute. This came thanks to a try by Aidan Kirk.
Jamie Lyon was named man of the match in the channel nine coverage of the game. He helped setup a try after catching the ball from his own bomb and then as he fell to the ground in a tackle he popped up the ball for Orford to score.
Now the focus is on the grand final. Manly have a few injury concerns coming out of the match against the Warriors. One is Orford. He is a key player in the Manly side. Tonight he shared the kicking role with Jamie Lyon which took some pressure off Orford.
Last year Melbourne Storm thrashed Manly 34-8 in the premiership decider. Manly will of course be keen to turn around that result and send out Steve Menzies with a grand final win. Now that Manly have made the grand final Menzies will equal Terry Lamb’s record of 349 first grade games.
Who is your pick for the 2008 NRL rugby league premiership? Love to hear from you.
Manly thump Storm to win 2008 NRL title
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