ROUND-UP
By CALLUM WALKER and TOM SMITH
A bizarre five-minute display almost threw away the preceding 75 for Manly as Melbourne almost snatched a seemingly impossible victory from the jaws of defeat.
The Sea Eagles led 36-12 with five minutes to go before the Storm notched up four remarkable tries to go home wondering what could have been.
Manly’s Tolutau Koula broke the deadlock on seven minutes, but Nick Meaney hit back shortly afterwards.
However, that was as good as it got for the Storm in the first half as Jason Saab registered a double with a Christian Tuipulotu effort sandwiched in between for an 18-6 lead at the break.
Shellshocked, Melbourne needed to come out firing in the second half but they failed to do so, with Morgan Harper forcing his way through soft tackling on 48 minutes.
22-6 soon became 28-6 when Haumole Olakau’atu demonstrated his strength, fending off four on his way to the line.
Brandon Smith did manage to get one back for Melbourne with a cheeky one-onone strip, but Koula registered his second just before the hour to send the game out of the Storm’s reach.
Daly Cherry-Evans added a penalty to make it 36-12 before Nelson Asofa-Solomona started off a remarkable Melbourne near-miracle on 74 minutes.
Not to be outdone, Ryan Papenhuyzen grabbed a double with Justin Olam also forcing his way over to reduce the deficit to just six points by the final whistle.