Manly have advanced to the second week of the NRL finals and ended Canterbury’s Cinderella season with a come-from-behind 24-22 win in their elimination final at Accor Stadium.
The Bulldogs controlled long stretches of Sunday’s match but a 45-metre runaway try from left centre Tolu Koula helped put Manly on top in the final 10 minutes.
Bulldogs five-eighth Matt Burton had two chances to level the scores in the last two minutes but his attempts at two-point field goals pulled up short.
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Manly will meet the Sydney Roosters for a semi-final at Allianz Stadium next Saturday night, with the Bulldogs left to regroup following heartbreak in their first final since 2016.
Tom Trbojevic made it through the full game on return from a shoulder injury, but the star Manly fullback struggled as the Bulldogs overcame recent physicality issues for a muscular first 40 minutes.
Premiership winners Viliame Kikau and Stephen Crichton were the architects of a 16-12 half-time lead that did not do justice to Canterbury’s domination of the contest.
After a Trobjevic knock-on, Kikau offloaded for Jacob Kiraz to score, before bursting through the Manly fullback for his own four-pointer.
Trbojevic was again caught out of position ahead of the Bulldogs’ third, losing the footrace to the ball as Crichton touched Burton’s kick down.
But when Lehi Hopoate outleapt Connor Tracey to send Ethan Bullemor over in the shadows of half-time, the Sea Eagles were well in the game.
Manly five-eighth Luke Brooks was excellent in breaking his 229-game finals drought, darting upfield to put the Sea Eagles in position for Tommy Talau to score their opener in the first half.
Brooks then threw a flat ball for Daly Cherry-Evans to score from a scrum set play midway through the second and cut the Bulldogs’ lead to four points.
Running the ball on the last play, Manly caught the Bulldogs’ right edge napping on a tear that began on the other side of halfway.
Ben Trbojevic found Koula, who burned Toby Sexton and stepped around Connor Tracey on his way to scoring a classic finals try.
Reuben Garrick’s conversion put the Sea Eagles in front, with the visitors never surrendering their lead.
The loss ends a resurgent season for the Bulldogs, who were made to contend with a week in the headlines when Josh Addo-Carr tested positive to cocaine in a roadside drug test last Friday.
His replacement Jeral Skelton had a mostly solid afternoon, catching Stephen Crichton’s tap-on to restore the Bulldogs’ lead.
But the side will be left to wonder what might have been had Addo-Carr been present on the right edge as Manly ran in their critical try.