![\"Dan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/c6acc0581c14a7477781e092516e1810bef13f2c.png\")
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August 14, 2026 \u2014 8:01pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n At various points in 2026, Manly have been one of the most exhilarating attacking sides in the NRL. The Dolphins still are, and are finals-bound for the first time in their history as a result.<\/p>\n So at half-time in Friday\u2019s clash at 4 Pines Park, you could only ask, what on earth had happened?<\/p>\n The same questions remained at full-time too, along with how Selwyn Cobbo defied the laws of man and nature to ground a 57th-minute try in the corner while wearing heavy contact from Clayton Faulalo and Reuben Garrick.<\/p>\n From an 8-0 half-time lead, the Dolphins closed out the grittiest of grinding wins with 31 errors in total. But their 22-0 victory margin is really the only take-away in a contest that barely got out of first gear, and never threatened to find second or third.<\/p>\n Manly\u2019s finals hopes, already circling the drain, slipped straight down it when Jamayne Isaako provided another rare highlight \u2013 latching onto an intercept and setting up an 85-metre try to NSW Origin flyer Jack Bostock.<\/p>\n The locals summed up Manly\u2019s slide into ignominy best. When Lehi Hopoate was denied a late try for putting a hand into touch, fans made an early exit \u2013 neatly wrapping up a campaign under Kieran Foran that had once promised so much.<\/p>\n \u2018Fozball\u2019 is officially done for the season, and Manly were held to zero on home soil for the first time since 1993.<\/p>\n \u201cIt hurts for sure. We\u2019re a proud club and we certainly have really high hopes for ourselves as a footy team,\u201d Foran said, with Manly\u2019s slew of injured middle forwards, along with sidelined captain Tom Trbojevic, looming large over the past six weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cWe understand the expectation of playing in this jersey and playing at this club, and it\u2019s disappointing to be held to nil … but we\u2019ll grow from this. There are reasons for why it\u2019s been tough and I haven\u2019t liked to use any of those as an excuse.\u201d<\/p>\n Until the Dolphins\u2019 backline stars shone brightly enough to seal a win that keeps them in touch with the top four, this Friday night affair was most notable for nothing much happening.<\/p>\n Dolphins coach Kristian Woolf, of course, saw a fourth consecutive win for his side differently and was understandably chuffed with keeping Manly scoreless.<\/p>\n \u201cOur defence was outstanding,\u201d Woolf said.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, to keep them to zero, that was great for us, and we showed some great desperation at times. At the start of the game we had a couple of errors that put us under pressure, and to make as many tackles as we did and hold up like we did, I was really proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n A pair of sin-bins for Manly speedster Tolu Koula (28th minute) and Dolphins back-rower Connelly Lemuelu (35th minute) for professional fouls hardly opened up a 12-on-12 shoot-out.<\/p>\n Instead, the visitors\u2019 safety-first footy and home side\u2019s shot confidence held firm. Manly spent much of the first 20 minutes camped on the Dolphins\u2019 tryline. They never threatened to cross it though as passes went to ground and over the sideline.<\/p>\n After holding firm in defence, the Dolphins offered little in attack themselves before finally crossing the Brookvale Rubicon into Manly\u2019s half in the 25th minute.<\/p>\n Even then, their first attacking crack at the Sea Eagles line amounted to only a penalty goal after a Jason Saab high tackle.<\/p>\n Related Article When they next came calling, Jeremy Marshall-King snuck out of dummy-half and caught Koula offside, with Kodi Nikorima finally skinning the shortened defence for the opening try.<\/p>\n Hopes of a brighter second half were put on ice when Manly\u2019s Jake Simpkins fumbled a ball a metre into the air from dummy-half before regathering, and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow misjudged a kick take by roughly 10 metres.<\/p>\n And as much as anything, those two bemusing moments, from two of the game\u2019s more enterprising attacking teams, said it all.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Manly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/f467c9ba09d82714a3c76f2ce1a5d14e65d1a3e2.jpeg\")
Manly lock Jake Trbojevic.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/c45440cdea8d73438c5da8eaa88a0571a266cd4f.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Dan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773949213_774_c6acc0581c14a7477781e092516e1810bef13f2c.png\")
Dan Walsh<\/a> is a sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"August 14, 2026 \u2014 8:01pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-854936","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\/854936","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=854936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}