{"id":763638,"date":"2026-06-27T11:53:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T11:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/763638\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T11:53:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T11:53:28","slug":"nrl-news-2026-haumole-olakauatu-sends-message-to-nsw-selectors-and-laurie-daley-manly-sea-eagles-vs-melbourne-storm-result-video-state-of-origin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/763638\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: Haumole Olakau\u2019atu sends message to NSW selectors and Laurie Daley; Manly Sea Eagles vs Melbourne Storm, result, video, State of Origin,"},"content":{"rendered":"

Haumole Olakau\u2019atu<\/a> has sent a timely message to NSW coach Laurie Daley<\/a>, scoring a first-half double in his side\u2019s 30-4 win against the Storm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The in-form Manly<\/a> wrecking ball was at his imposing best on Saturday night, crashing over for the side\u2019s opening two tries at Brookvale Oval.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Haumole Olakau’atu celebrates a try.\u00a0Fox League<\/p>\n

Olakau\u2019atu, who didn\u2019t feature in State of Origin<\/a> game two after being dropped for Dylan Lucas<\/a>, is pushing his case for a Blues recall in the series decider.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old did his chances no harm against Melbourne and some moments he had with ball in hand would be striking fear into Billy Slater<\/a>\u2019s camp.<\/p>\n

Both of his four-pointers for the Sea Eagles came in almost identical fashion, strolling through at close range as Storm defenders gave him a wide berth. <\/p>\n

One opposition player who couldn\u2019t get out of the Tongan international\u2019s way was Moses Leo, who was knocked out following Manly\u2019s second try.<\/p>\n

Olakau\u2019atu took the ball from the kick off and ran full-pelt into the Melbourne defensive line, with his shoulder collecting Leo in the head.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow he\u2019s knocked out the winger – this is nasty,\u201d Andrew Voss said on Fox League.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe went straight over the top of Leo and you\u2019d have to say this is the end of his night … my goodness, that was fearsome stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rookie outside back was out cold following the collision with Olakau\u2019atu and had to be taken from the field by Storm trainers. <\/p>\n

Jason Saab extended the lead with a spectacular aerial try, before strike centre Tolu Koula made it a 24-0 buffer for the Sea Eagles at half time – but it was Olakau\u2019atu who had all the plaudits after a rampaging 40 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has been that good that it\u2019s scary. If we\u2019re going off that, he is in the [NSW] side … he has been devastating,\u201d Storm legend Cooper Cronk<\/a> said. <\/p>\n

The hulking edge forward finished the night with 139 run metres and seven tackle breaks to go with his double on a dominant night for the Sea Eagles.<\/p>\n

In a blow for the home side, Luke Brooks<\/a> failed to return for the second half due to a knee injury, replaced by young gun Joey Walsh<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Early reports indicated Brooks may have suffered an ACL injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Manly\u2019s victory entrenches them in the top-eight, while the loss for Melbourne acts as a bitter blow for their finals hopes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Haumole Olakau\u2019atu has sent a timely message to NSW coach Laurie Daley, scoring a first-half double in his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":763639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-763638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763638","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=763638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/763639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}