Jersey Flegg: Dragons down Manly at death to continue strong start

The Dragons took advantage of an early Manly error to draw first blood with Clay Baldock powering his way over in the right-hand corner to make it 4-0.

The Dragons centre was unfortunately helped from the field in the aftermath with a knee issue bringing Jackson Cahill-Smith into the contest.

Cahill-Smith took little time injecting himself into the action sending a bomb up the next set for a chasing Eden Hodges who won the aerial contest and moved the ball onto Saifiti Junior Saifiti to dive over in the same corner.

Shadi Hammoud nailed the conversion from the touchline to make it a double-digit Dragons advantage 10 minutes into proceedings.

The momentum continued for the home side with a pair of set restarts paving the way for Cahill-Smith taking in a Connor Sadler offload and diving over for the Dragons’ third.

Sadler found a try of his own moments later with a piercing hole run to make it 18-0.

Manly were able to stop the bleeding just shy of the half-hour mark with Benjamin Keene-O’Keefe splitting the defence to score and cut the deficit down to a dozen.

Nehemiah Wuatai-Davis went close to finding Manly’s second soon after only to lose the ball in his grounding attempt.

The Dragons – aided by a last tackle penalty – marched back down the other and crossed with Cooper Hale showing some savvy out of acting half to send Kye Andrews over untouched in the left-hand corner.

The Dragons lost Leeroy Weatherall to an ankle concern prior to half-time in another injury blow.

Manly found a needed try a minute out from half-time with Kalani Peyroux-Donaldson slipping through a hole to cross.

Despite working their way to a five-tries-to-two edge, goal-kicking troubles saw the Dragons take just a 12-point into the intermission.

Winger Mitchell Heather went over for Manly in the opening exchanges of the second forty to bring them back within eight.

The Sea Eagles’ fightback continued shortly after with Christian Taula crashing over under the sticks as the hosts’ lead evaporated down to just two.

The match came to a halt for several minutes as Manly’s Simon Green was helped from the field after a heavy collision.

The Sea Eagles hit the lead for the first time with seven minutes on the clock with Keene-O’Keefe finishing off a long-range effort sparked by a Dragons error.

Manly’s joy however was short-lived with the Dragons pulling off a long-range effort of their own with Andrews shooting into the backfield and moving the ball back on the inside to Borg who finished things off.

Hammoud knocked over the conversion with the seconds ticking away to deliver a heart-stopping Dragons victory.