Letting go of an early 18-4 lead before the Cowboys ran riot and piled on four tries in the second half, the Dragons will need to ensure they can maintain an 80-minute performance and ice their opportunities with the ball if they want to mix it with an in-form Manly side.
Not only will the Dragons be opening the gates to WIN Stadium for 2024 but there will also be plenty of extra motivation with coach Shane Flanagan coming up against Anthony Seibold for the first time since stepping out of Manly’s assistant coach role.
Meanwhile, the Sea-Eagles are proving to be the sleeping giant of the competition this year and despite falling to their first loss, will still take plenty of positives from their 28-24 clash with the Eels on Sunday.
Having been tested against several of the competition’s heavyweights, Manly will fancy their chances against the Dragons if they can hold onto the football and rue the errors which creeped into their game last week.
A number of changes in the starting pack with Francis Molo (suspension), Jacob Liddle (concussion) and Jaydn Su’A (quad) all back on deck after missing Round 3. Jack de Belin, Jesse Marschke and Raymond Faitala-Mariner all move to the interchange bench.
Hame Sele is back from a hamstring injury on the bench. Connor Muhleisen, Michael Molo and Viliami Fifita all drop out of the side. No changes in Friday’s 24-hour update.
