Luke Brooks has put himself on the brink of reaching the holy grail of a maiden NRL finals series, producing his best game in Manly colours in a 38-8 win over Gold Coast.
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In a crucial match for both sides in the race for the eight, Manly trailed 8-0 early before blowing the Titans out of the water with seven unanswered tries at Brookvale on Sunday.
The win moved the Sea Eagles within two points of the top four, and effectively killed off former coach Des Hasler's hopes of taking the Titans to the finals in his first season.
After appearing fragile early, Manly showed every bit of why they can be a threat in the finals, with Tom Trbojevic scoring two tries and setting up another three.
Most encouragingly, the fullback also appeared more physical in attack and willing to take several hit-ups in his third game back from injury.
The only concern for the hosts was a fractured eye-socket to teenage winger Lehi Hopoate, who will miss four weeks after showing considerable swelling.
With strike centre Tolu Koula also out, coach Anthony Seibold will consider playing Ben Trbojevic at centre or rookie Clayton Faulalo out wide.
Still, this was a big win for the Sea Eagles.
Gold Coast had five linebreaks and busted 18 tackles in the first 18 minutes alone on Sunday, and could easily have had more than the opening two unconverted tries.
Then Brooks turned the tide for Manly.
Some 11 years into his NRL career and still without a finals appearance, Brooks stepped and jinked from close to the line to cross and put Manly on the board.
From the next set, the five-eighth opted to run it on the last, spotted numbers on the left edge and got the ball to Tommy Talau for Hopoate to score.
Both plays showed the freedom Brooks has relished this year at Manly, away from the weight of expectation and responsibility he had at Wests Tigers.
"It was his best (game for Manly)," Seibold said.
"Brooksy has really stepped up with Chez (Daly Cherry-Evans) being away the last week and a bit.
"He's had a 200-game career and won Dally M halfback of the year one year.
"When he's played his best ... it was off the back of that running game."
After Manly's stabilising first two tries, the floodgates opened.
Trbojevic scored two tries looming up in support play, put his brother Ben over for another and constantly looked threatening on the right edge beside Reuben Garrick.
Brooks and Trbojevic also combined late to set up another try, with the fullback tipping on a pass from the five-eighth to send winger Tommy Talau over.
With all eyes on Brooks and Trbojevic, Hasler's return to Brookvale amid a legal dispute with the club went largely unnoticed.
He was neither cheered nor jeered by Manly fans, with his bigger concern now a Titans team languishing in 15th after their three-game win streak was snapped.
"It makes it a little bit harder, but we get back and ready for Dolphins next Sunday," Hasler said.
"We haven't got much margin there if we want to give ourselves a realistic chance. We've probably made it a little harder with today's result.
"The first half we had six linebreaks. We probably needed to capitalise a bit more on that."
Australian Associated Press
