{"id":581056,"date":"2026-04-02T16:33:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T16:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/581056\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T16:33:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T16:33:14","slug":"magnificent-manly-give-kieran-foran-dream-coaching-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/581056\/","title":{"rendered":"Magnificent Manly give Kieran Foran dream coaching debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manly have delivered for Kieran Foran in spectacular fashion to blitz the Dolphins 52-18 and give the club legend a memorable NRL<\/a> coaching debut.<\/p>\n

The Trbojevic brothers — Tom, Jake and Ben — were magnificent at a sold-out Kayo Stadium in Redcliffe on Thursday night. Giant second-rower Haumole Olakau’atu reigned supreme on the right edge, swatting Dolphins away like flies.<\/p>\n

Manly were direct, skilful and committed. All the qualities Foran displayed in his illustrious career were on show against a diabolical Dolphins outfit that offered nothing.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

1 Related<\/p>\n

It was the equal-biggest win by a team in the match after sacking their coach in history, ironically matching Dolphins coach Kristian Woolf’s margin of 34 on debut at Newcastle in 2019.<\/p>\n

Foran became just the third coach on debut to have their team score 50 points, joining Charles Fraser (Balmain in 1921) and Andrew Farrar (Illawarra in 1997)<\/p>\n

In his wildest dreams Foran could not have conceived of a 28-0 lead at halftime at the Dolphins’ home ground, particularly after Manly had lost their opening three matches of the season.<\/p>\n

When Foran was installed as interim coach on Saturday, a day after head coach Anthony Seibold was axed, there was a sense there might be a form bounce.<\/p>\n

Manly’s transformation had to be seen to be believed.<\/p>\n

The Dolphins could not handle fullback Tom Trbojevic and barnstorming Olakau’atu. It was no surprise when the giant forward stepped through an attempted tackle by Dolphins co-captain Tom Gilbert to set up Trbojevic for the opening try.<\/p>\n

Brilliant hands by several Eagles and a slick catch and pass by Trbojevic put winger Lehi Hopoate over and the visitors led 12-0.<\/p>\n

The Sea Eagles celebrate a try by Reuben Garrick.\u00a0Albert Perez\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Dolphins lock Morgan Knowles was sin-binned for a professional foul and Manly took control.<\/p>\n

The Dolphins’ attack was an utter mess. Their shape deserted them and errors followed.<\/p>\n

Hopoate made them pay when he swooped on a Kulikefu Finefeuiaki dropped ball to race 50m.<\/p>\n

Olakau’atu laid on a try for flying centre Reuben Garrick with an exquisite short pass and half Jamal Fogarty put another try on a platter for halves partner Luke Brooks with a brilliant grubber kick.<\/p>\n

Olakau’atu gave Dolphins five-eighth Kodi Nikorima nightmares and stormed through him after the break. Tolutau Koula rampaged in for a try of his own.<\/p>\n

Jake Trbojevic, criticised for his lack of impact in attack, ran the ball with vim and played a key role in the middle as did his brother Ben in the back-row, celebrating one of his best games in the NRL with a cracking try.<\/p>\n

Tom Trbojevic left the field for a HIA in the second half, which he passed, but Foran elected to not put him back on.<\/p>\n

Dolphins fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow scored a consolation double but the home side had Knowles, Thomas Flegler and Connelly Lemuelu all put in report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manly have delivered for Kieran Foran in spectacular fashion to blitz the Dolphins 52-18 and give the club…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-581056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}