Manly delivered one of their most comprehensive performances of the season against the Tigers on Saturday afternoon, scoring eight tries and effectively ending the contest within the opening quarter, in an identity-affirming game that cemented the new culture of the Fozball era. On the other side of the Steeden, the Tigers’ spike is officially over, after 52 points to Cronulla and 44 to Melbourne make it 142 in three games – a stark contrast to the Sea Eagles, who have conceded 18 or less in seven straight for the first time since 2008.

That flashback to Brooky’s golden era, ushered in by Kieran Foran, gave this game a powerful sense of hope and belief that was personified by Jason Saab, who nabbed another hat trick and repeatedly exposed the Tigers’ edge defence, with overlap after overlap down the right side. If Saab was the finisher then Tolu Koula was the spark, virtually unstoppable when his speed and footwork peaked, while the middle part of the game felt like a microcosm for Haumole Olaka’atu’s return to Blues eligibility after his 2025 shoulder issues.

The Tigers may have scored three tries but they were ultimately blips, two of them in the last ten minutes, and barely memorable once they’d happened, failing to change the momentum of the game in any meaningful way. They got on the board early in the second quarter off a left sweep that ended with Luke Laulilii pivoting back in at the last minute to avoid Clayton Faulalo and then scored twice more in the last five minutes – Jeral Skelton off a nice Patrick Herbert assist, Kai Pearce-Paul thanks to Herbert taking a Jock Madden kick.

In another game these might have been key moment but this afternoon they only served to texture and contour what was basically a Fozball highlights reel. The first quarter, in particular, was like a schematic demonstration of Manly’s core assets, as the Sea Eagles racked up 63% possession, 5-0 linebreaks, 14-0 tackles in the opposition half, and a scoreline of 18-20, all before the twenty minute mark. They set the scene with an incredible opening pair of tries, both long-range efforts, that dominated both sides of the park.

The first was a career best for Koula, an Origin-worthy opener on the eve of his big debut that played as a more extreme and improbable version of Hammer’s try that closed the Phins’ win over South Sydney the night before. Conversely it summarised everything about the Tigers’ defence, as Koula took Luke Brooks’ offload on the return at the Manly forty, got outside Pearce-Paul, trampled over Turuva at halfway, went chest to chest with Heath Mason, dodged inside through a Madden tackle and eluded Terrell May in the red zone.

After all that contact Koula still crossed untouched and six minutes later Saab was just as sublime on the other wing, also starting from his own forty but showcasing a different kind of dexterity as he danced along the sideline, only needing to break a Laulilii tackle at the Tigers’ forty, scoot past Mason at the thirty and easily outpace Herbert to also score untouched, curving around behind the posts. Reuben Garrick, who made the offload that put Saab into space, converted again; Manly were sitting on more than a point per minute.

The next passage of the game was marked by the escalation of Olakau’atu, who almost broke up the middle three minutes later, where he wished Alex Seyfarth a happy hundredth by busting through him twice, palming to ground the second time, and only succumbing to him on the third attempt, with the help of a few other defenders. Brooksy gave him a rest three minutes after that, when he sent the cut-out to Koula, who in turn popped early ball on for Lehi Hopoate to score from halfway up the park, in his seventh straight appearance.

The last Sea Eagle to do that was Brett Stewart back in 2006, once again reiterating the sense that Foran had managed to dig deep into Brookvale’s hallowed history – and Olakau’atu jacked back into that rhythm at the 32^nd minute, when his left-handed offload put Faulalo across to celebrate his best game replacing Tommy Turbo, with two try assists, a linebreak, four linebreak assists and 21 runs for 219 metres also up his sleeve. With Laulilii’s try the Tigs’ headed to the sheds at 8-24 – not good at all, but not catastrophic just yet.

Nevertheless, four minutes into the second half, Olakau’atu finally scored the try he’d been fighting for, thanks to some nice passing from Brooksy and Ethan Bullemor, and while Mason and Ethan Roberts launched onto him from behind, there was no way they were going to stop Haumole reaching out and planting it down. The epilogue to Olakau’atu’s great narrative arc in the middle of this game came 16 minutes in, when his decoy run set up Faulalo to lob a beautiful wide ball out to the wing for Saab to silkily make it a double.

From here this felt less like a regular match, let alone a genuine Magic Round contest, than a demonstration game for Manly, although in its own way that also suited the carnival atmosphere at Suncorp. On the brink of the third quarter Brooks poked his nose through the line and offloaded to Jamal Fogarty, who marked his return after a fortnight on the sidelines nursing a groin injury by breaking through and booting at speed, before tempting Mason into sloppy late contact that saw him sent off the park for the next ten minutes.

Manly only needed a minute to score, and did it with their simplest play yet – Taniela Paskeka straight under the posts, with Roberts getting beneath him but unable to hold him up. The piece de la resistance, and the Sea Eagles’ crowning try, came at the start of the final quarter, when Olakau’atu’s night peaked with a monster charge up the middle, eliciting some of the Tigers’ most heroic defence in turn, as Jarome Luai tried to tackle him at full stride and Turuva didn’t ankle tap so much as launch himself into the maelstrom of his feet.

On the back of that epic run, Jake Simpkin dummied left, deceiving Luai just enough to lob a fast one out to Faulalo, who set his eyes on the line but flicked it on to Saab to get the half inch he needed to make it a hat trick – two superb pieces of deception that capped off a near-perfect afternoon for the Sea Eagles. Just before the end they nearly hit the half century for the second time this season, when Garrick took a Fogarty grubber over the line, but Laulilii’s tackle was enough for him to lose it from the crook of his elbow at the death.

Manly have demonstrated, then, that they can achieve highly without Turbo in the Fozball era, and their ability to remain a top-four contender without key players will prove critical during the Origin period as Koula and Olakau’atu are drafted to the Blues. Defence must continue to be the cornerstone of their revival under Foran, and while they can expect some gritty wins, they’ll be looking to finish the Origin weeks in the top six and remain within sight of the top four, while continuing to rally around this new narrative of who they can become.

Meanwhile the Tigers desperately have to halt the decline – points conceded are going to be far more important than points scored over the next month. They can’t afford to leak 40 plus again, so the bye will be a critical mental recalibration as Jarome Luai prepares to consolidate his leadership in the absence of a Blues call-up. Api Koroisau, Jahream Bula and Adam Doueihi will all make a difference when they return but even without these key playmakers the Tigers’s main goal, beyond winning, must be to compete for the full eighty.