Brooks and Marshall star as Tigers turn entertainers in rout of Manly
Luke Brooks and Benji Marshall have put on a clinic in a 38-12 thrashing of Manly that has kept surprise packets Wests Tigers camped in the NRL's top four.
A fifth win of the season for Ivan Cleary's men was all but guaranteed by the halfway stage of Sunday's match at Lottoland after they blew the Sea Eagles away to lead 26-0.
The Tigers had turned up on the northern beaches having averaged only 13 points per match over the first five rounds, the excellent start to the campaign attributed more to their new-found steel in defence, the best in the competition.
They had that figure covered by only the 13th minute on Sunday, marking the beginnings of an extraordinary ambush.
They still like to talk of Brookvale as a fortress up this way despite being spanked here more than once in the last year but the Tigers' record, having lost on their previous eight trips, suggested it may well live up to its reputation of old.
However, with a stunning share of possession in the visitors' favour, Manly were blown away.
The Sea Eagles were forced to make a staggering 213 tackles compared to the Tigers' 85 in the first half , the contest descending into the type of one-way traffic you get over the Spit Bridge in peak hour.
Against a quickly tiring opposition, Cleary's men turned entertainers – and a brilliant Brooks was the protagonist.
In the finest outing of his career, the halfback scored one try himself and set up the Tigers' other three, scored by Chris Lawrence, Malakai Watene-Zelekniak and Marshall – in the first 40 minutes alone.
His senior partner in the halves, Marshall, wasn't far behind, turning back the clock to the joint venture's most glorious days with the sight of him dashing downfield and sidestepping his way across the line.
The 33-year-old scored twice within the space of nine minutes either side of the break, finishing off a neat set play orchestrated by Brooks before leaving Manly's Joel Thompson stranded with some footwork from yesteryear.
The Sea Eagles were on the back foot from the outset but did themselves no favours. Akuila Uate in particular had a shocker, making a meal of a Marshall bomb and a Brooks grubber, both which proved costly.
It was little wonder that Trent Barrett chose to deliver arguably the most ferocious half-time spray of his tenure at Manly.
Realistically, his team were playing for pride from that point on.
They made a couple of indents on the scoreboard in the final half-hour but the restrained celebrations for consolation tries to Thompson and Brad Parker would be all a home crowd of 15,546 would have to cheer about.
It was fitting then that Manly's evening should end with the indignity of a penalty try, with Daly Cherry-Evans pulled up for holding back Tigers hooker Jacob Liddle just before the final siren.