Inspired win by Manly, they looked 'on' from the get go and really got on a roll after that magnificent inside pass by DCE.
That was an inspired performance from Cherry-Evans which we simply didn't see enough of in 2014. His kicking game asked plenty of questions of the Melbourne defence and his running game caused plenty of problems. He was the clear Man of the Match and if he keeps that form going he will keep Manly's run of finals alive. The inclusions of Buhrer & Matai really helped and Mason turned back the clock with an inspired performance. He's a handy player Mason, but his biggest problem in recent years has been his capacity to deliver top shelf performances.
Melbourne deserve to feel a little hard done by, but I wouldn't call it a full on rort. The decision not to refer the Tonumaipea 'knock-on' was odd but live I thought Maxwell made the right call and I needed to get a better look at it then what Fox gave us before I can really call it a bad decision. Clearly it wasn't Melbourne's best effort, they didn't have the best preperation having to back up from Monday and evidently didn't have enough time to work on their flaws from that game. They were all on show tonight - mediocre execution, poor discipline, blown opportunities...but stuff they can certainly work on. What I like about Melbourne as a team is that you just know they're always a good chance of digging in until the final minute and they just about stole the game. I think they'll bounce back next week when they face off against Cronulla but wouldn't be surprised to see Bellamy make a few changes to his line-up later on down the track to get the mixture right.