NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS 6 MANLY SEA EAGLES 38
CALLUM WALKER, Queensland Country Bank Stadium, Thursday

MANLY SEA EAGLES made it three wins from three under interim boss Kieran Foran with a comprehensive victory over a shellshocked North Queensland.

The writing was on the wall early when Luke Brooks split the Cowboys defence before offloading to Lehi Hopoate in the corner, but the sad sight of Tom Trbojevic limping off moments later dampened the celebrations.

Hopoate grabbed a second shortly after, and, though Coen Hess did pull back one for the home side around the midway point in the first-half, an effort apiece from Ben Trbojevic and Brandon Wakeham with half-time in sight, sent the Sea Eagles into a 22-6 lead.

The Cowboys, try as they might, couldn’t break down the steely Manly defence in the second-half as Jamal Fogarty kept the scoreboard ticking over with a penalty on the hour.

And when Taniela Paseka crossed with 15 minutes remaining, the game was closed as a contest as man-of-the-match Brooks put the icing on the cake two minutes later with Fogarty expertly running a last tackle power play.

And Fogarty had just enough time to convert both efforts and add a penalty to round off the scoring at 38-6.

COWBOYS: 1 Scott Drinkwater, 2 Braidon Burns, 3 Jaxon Purdue, 4 Tom Chester, 5 Zac Laybutt, 6 Jake Clifford, 7 Tom Dearden (C), 8 Coen Hess, 9 Soni Luke, 10, Jason Taumalolo, 11 Heilum Luki, 12 Kai O’Donnell, 13 Reuben Cotter. Subs: 14 Sam McIntyre, 15 Griffin Neame, 16 Thomas Mikaele, 17 Matt Lodge, 18 Viliami Vailea (not used), 20 Harrison Edwards (not used)

Tries: Hess (22); Goals: Clifford 1/1

SEA EAGLES: 1 Tom Trbojevic (C), 2 Jason Saab, 3 Tolutau Koula, 4 Reuben Garrick, 5 Lehi Hopoate, 6 Luke Brooks, 7 Jamal Fogarty, 8 Taniela Paseka, 9 Brandon Wakeham, 10 Kobe Hetherington, 11 Haumole Olakau’atu, 12 Ben Trbojevic, 13 Jake Trbojevic. Subs: 14 Jake Simpkin, 15 Corey Waddell, 16 Ethan Bullemor (not used), 17 Siosiua Taukeiaho, 18 Nathan Brown (not used), 19 Clayton Faulalo

Tries: Hopoate (5, 17), B Trbojevic (28), Wakeham (37), Paseka (65), Brooks (67); Goals: Fogarty 7/8

SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-4, 0-10, 6-10, 6-16, 6-22; 6-24, 6-30, 6-36, 6-38

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Cowboys: Coen Hess; Sea Eagles: Jamal Fogarty

Penalty count: 6-4; Half-time: 6-22; Referee: Gerard Sutton; Attendance: 17,476