2006 Round 23 vs Manly Warringah Sea Eagles:
Manly Warringah 16 defeated Newcastle 14
Newcastle and Manly fought out an intense struggle in Round 23, with Manly coming out on top, but both sides faced repercussions that would play key roles in the fate of their season.
Newcastle's Andrew Johns was immediately under scrutiny by match reviewers for a verbal spray to touch judge Matt Cecchin after an extremely poor decision in the last minute of play. Johns was alleged to have said to Cecchin "F*** you, c***", leading to calls that he should be suspended for his actions. Meanwhile, for Manly, Ben Kennedy sustained a knee injury early int he match, which looked as if it may rule him out for the remainder of the season, ending his illustrious NRL career.
These two incidents took some of the gloss off a terrific match of rugby league, played out in front of 25,105 parochial Newcastle supporters. Manly looked the better side for most of the match, but could not deliver a knock-out blow. Newcastle dropped plenty of ball, but defended superbly, setting up the last minute rally to get a match-winning try.
Newcastle started in fine form, when Johns scored for the forth match in succession in the 8th minute. Kirk Reynoldson found George Carmont with a short ball on the halfway line, and Carmont gave it on to Quinn who was in space. In the broken play, Quinn was able to find Andrew Johns, and Johns used every ounce of his strength to bust free of a Brett Stewart tackle and race the remaining 20 metres to score. Johns was unable to convert his own try, leaving it 4-0 to Newcastle.
Manly's reply in the 20th minute was not without luck. Matt Orford kicked on the 40 metre line, but his bomb was a straight up and down affair. Steve Menzies took the kick, and with the Newcastle defence standing off, offloaded to Bell who made a long run. Bell then found Chris Hicks, who bounced away from a poor Thaiday attempted tackle, and gave the ball back to Bell, who scored. Orford's conversion was astray, and the scores were locked up at 4 all.
Newcastle replied almost immediately in the 23rd minute. Inside the Manly 20, Johns found Milton Thaiday with a second man pass, and Thaiday gave the ball to Matthew Gidley on the inside, who crossed virtually untouched. Johns again could not convert, leaving Newcastle with a precarious 8-4 lead.
Manly scored and hit the lead to head into halftime, in the 32nd minute. Newcastle failed to complete four sets of six in a row, and Manly finally crossed with from a scrum on the Knights 10 metre line, with Matt Orford evading Milton Thaiday to cross from the scrum-base. Orford notched up the first conversion of the night, to give Manly a 10-8 advantage.
Scores stayed that way until the 73rd minute, with Manly having plenty of opportunities, but unable to breach the strong Newcastle defence. Newcastle, on the other hand, made far too many errors to get close to Manly's line. In the end, Manly broke the halftime score with a super try from halfway. Travis Burns scorched into a gap, found Brett Stewart, and Stewart was able to give the ball to Chris Hicks who scored. The vital conversion by Orford gave Manly an eight point lead at 16-8.
Newcastle were successful in getting the ball back from a short restart, and returned serve immediately. Andrew Johns found Josh Perry close to the line, and Perry charged over under the posts. Johns converted, and it was straight away back to a two point match at 16-14.
Newcastle got a chance right on Manly's line with 2 minute left, due to first of all a great defensive set, and then Travis Burns kicking out on the full. They were unable to cross however, and eventually Manly got off the hook when Steve Matai batted a pass down with 30 seconds left. It was patently obvious that Matai had played at the ball, but the referee and touch judge disagreed, meaning Manly took the spoils 16-14.
Manly looked to have wrapped up a top four spot with the win, which was extremely impressive. Despite not being able to crack the Knights defence too often, they looked likely to win right through-out the second half. Newcastle would be ruing far too many errors, when they had a chance of building a lead in the second half.
What they said:
Paul Simpkins:
"I made a call that the ball wasn't played at. Manly regained possession, then Buderus had hold of the ball and he wouldn't let go, so I awarded a penalty. I had to caution Andrew Johns for dissent."
"[Did Johns call the touch-judge a "f***ing c***?] That was the report from the touch judge. He was cautioned to that effect."
Michael Hagan:
"[On the last minute call against Newcastle] I just thought it was an example of a knock-on. It seemed fairly apparent to everyone else in the ground. It wasn't in the context of making a tackle and not playing at the football, it was a knock-on. Surely there won't be a debate on Monday that it was anything but wrong."
"[On Johns swearing at the touch-judge] I think he would be entitled to swear at him. The game was there to be won and lost."
Ben Kennedy:
"I was super confident about our chances before the game. I really thought we could get a win up here and we did. It would have been heartbreaking to lose on the bell. I was s****ing myself."
Manly club doctor Paul Bloomfield:
"[On Kennedy's knee injury] It's either a cork or it could be something wrong with the patella. We won't know until Ben has an MRI scan."