The Sea Eagles finished off the Cowboys tonight with a try of the year contender after winger Reuben Garrick elected to roll the dice despite the sound of the full-time siren.
Leading by 22 points and having already sealed victory in Townsville, Garrick elected to take possession in Manly’s defensive in-goal just when it looked like the ball was going to roll out of play and end the game.
The Manly winger then took the ball up to the halfway line before passing it off skipper Daly Cherry-Evans, who then put in a grubber for superstar fullback Tom Trbojevic to pounce on and score.
The try to Trbojevic capped off a masterclass performance as the fullback finished with a hat-trick, two try assists, six line-breaks and 302 run-metres.
“Oh my goodness!” Andrew Voss said in commentary for Fox League. “That is from another universe.”
“Rugby league is not played like that. That is something that has come from out of this world.
“It’s more than 110 metres, the direction change, Garrick’s added another 10 or 15 (metres).
“I reckon if you measured it out, they’ve covered 125 metres Manly to score the try. That is another level of bizarre, crazy and ridiculous rugby league.
“That’s not just a great moment, but one of the greatest you’ve seen there.”
Asked about the try after the match, Trbojevic admitted he too was surprised when Garrick elected to continue playing.
“They (Cowboys) kicked the ball and I thought Reuben was just going to run it dead, so we started high-fiving all the boys, saying good win,” Trbojevic said.
“All of a sudden he’s taken off and everyone got on the back of it and I was lucky enough to get the final kick off Cherry-Evans.”
For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!