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Manly Sea Eagles successfully secured a 2015 finals spot by completely blowing the Wentworthville Magpies away 58-16.

Tom Symonds scored a double and was inspirational for the Sea Eagles, while Jayden Hodges was at his creative best out of dummy half.

Kurt Aldridge had a near perfect afternoon with the boot, kicking nine goals from ten attempts in the 42-point win.

The match began with both teams blowing their first opportunity on the attack, before Symonds palmed off a defender and burst through a hole after a wonderful show-and-go to open the scoring for the Sea Eagles.

The Sea Eagles then dropped the ball off the kickoff, and the Magpies capitalised on the gifted field position when Beau Henry hit Cody Nelson with a short ball to crash over and score.

The Magpies hit the lead in the 20th minute when Nathan Davis popped an outstanding offload for Nick Kassis to score, which came off the back of a forced dropout.

Their lead was short lived however, as Hodges shaped to go left out of dummy half, but went right to Dom Reardon, who then passed to Delroy Berryman who did remarkably well to finish in the corner.

The rest of the first half was mediocre for the Magpies, who were flat in defence and struggled to make any impact with the ball in hand.

The Magpies fell for a second show-and-go in just the 32nd minute when Manaia Rudolph dummied and charged through a massive hole to increase the Sea Eagles lead to 18-10.

Rudolph then threw a skillful cut out ball on the run just four minutes later to Berryman, who completed his second try of the afternoon.

Tony Satini combined with David Williams to march 80 metres up field off the kickoff, which immediately placed the Sea Eagles on the attack. Hodges sold a dummy a few tackles later, spun through a defender and planted the ball down to make the halftime score 28-10.

The Magpies dominated the opening 15 minutes of the second term after the Sea Eagles dropped the ball on the first tackle of the half.

James Tuitahi was just centimeters away from scoring an athletic try for the Magpies two minutes into the half, before Williams pulled off an incredible try saving tackle to deny the visitors just four minutes later.

Cheyse Blair was sent to the sin bin for a professional foul, and the visitors took full advantage of the extra man when Lionel O’Mally muscled his way over from dummy half.

That was the only try the Magpies scored in this period of domination, and their confidence completely deflated when the Sea Eagles scored through Symonds in their first try-scoring opportunity of the half.

Up 34-16 with 20 minutes remaining, the floodgates opened for the home side.

An amazing set play featuring Hodges, Aldridge and Reardon increased their lead to 40-16, before Brayden Wiliame scored off the kickoff thanks to an amazing run by Berryman and some good work by Symonds.

Siosaia Vave brought up the half century in the 69th minute after muscling his way over, before Dylan Kelly threw an amazing flick pass to Tony Satini, who then got the ball way to Hodges who was lingering in support.

The win ensures the Sea Eagles will be playing finals football after the Illawarra Cutters went down to the Bulldogs, and the 42-point margin will boost their for and against, which could impact their position within the top eight.

The Sea Eagles host the Newcastle Knights next week at Brookvale Oval, while the Wentworthville Magpies will take on the Wyong Roos at Pirtek Stadium.

 

Manly Sea Eagles 58 (D Berryman 2, J Hodges 2, T Symonds 2, D Reardon, B Wiliame, M Rudolph, S Vave tries; K Aldridge 9 goals) bt Wentworthville Magpies 16 (N Kassis, C Nelson, L O'Malley tries; B Henry 2 goals) at Brookvale Oval. 

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