The Raiders have suffered their first defeat of the 2025 season, after losing 40-12 to Manly at 4 Pines Park.
Although the green machine put up a strong defensive effort early in the first half, errors plagued the Raiders, and a lack of possession gave the Sea Eagles a chance to go out to a big lead they could not chase down.
It was all attack by Manly in the early stages, but the Raiders’ strong defence was able to hold Manly at bay during the first 20 minutes despite a glut of possession against them.
The Raiders looked to have scored first through Sebastian Kris, but the joy was short-lived when the bunker found an obstruction from Corey Horsburgh.
Horsburgh was then sent to the sin bin moments later, after the referee called a professional foul while he was defending his own line.
With one man down Manly was finally able to crack the Raiders’ defence with Reuben Garrick squeezing through to score the first points of the match.
Still capitalising on the Raiders’ 12-man side, Manly scored two tries in two minutes through Ethan Bullemor, to see Manly out to an 18-0 lead.
The Raiders’ sin bin proved expensive and gave Manly the opportunity to reach the try line again with Jake Simpkin charging through to extend the lead to 24-0.
Canberra’s fatigue was evident as Manly scored off the back of a line goal dropout, with an offload by Haumole Olakau’atu pushing Garrick into the Raiders’ right edge to score his second try for the night.
The Raiders went to the sheds with it all to do at 30-0 down.
The start of the second half saw both teams in a back-and-forth contest, but it was Manly who scored the next two tries through Reuben Garrick, who made it 40-0 after his fourth try of the night.
The Raiders finally got on the scoreboard through Sebastian Kris, after a neat kick from Jamal Fogarty gave Kris the opportunity to score.
The Raiders scored again through Hudson Young late in the match after a beautiful offload from Josh Papalii, but it was too little too late as they finished behind on the scoreboard by 40-12.
