Shaun Johnson says more success lies ahead for the Warriors: "The club is in pretty good stead and to have all three teams in the grand final is something special".
Glenn Stewart is the Clive Churchill Medallist. Stewart just shook hands with David Gallop and the pair spoke briefly.
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Des Hasler just said of Brett Stewart: "I think he has finally got closure". Glenn and Brett Stewart are the first brothers to score in a grand final.
Des Hasler just said: "We were deserved winners tonight. Full credit to the Warriors but I can't fault these guys."
Captain Jamie Lyon scores a deserved try off a Glenn Stewart pass to secure Manly's second premiership in four years. Michael Robertson kicks the goal from wide out in his last game for the club with players and officials running on to celebrate. MANLY 24 WARRIORS 10. Those with betting tickets for Manly to win by 13+ will be happy.
Locke just threw a forward pass in his own in-goal. Dropout. Manly have won.
Locke loses ball running off his own line.
Hot potato play by the Warriors but Manly hang on. They just want this game to end. Warriors are coming home strong but time will probably beat them.
Manly are now trying to wind down the clock. DCE deliberately kicked the ball dead.
Cherry-Evans kick straight down Locke's throat. Warriors up to halfway after four tackles.
Manly are off the hook now but this game isn't over. Watmough down injured now. He wouldn't be wasting time would he?
That passage of play was unbelievable. Johnson's kick and regather was freakish, Vatuvei no-look pass, Lewis Brown grubber and Cherry-Evans trapped in-goal.
Manly winger Will Hopoate came closest to handing his side the early advantage, but his effort was a reflection of the tight contest; his hip touched the white line as he planted the ball. Warriors five-eighth James Maloney showed a more direct route, but his opposite Foran stopped him.
No side really deserved to take the lead but Manly's interchange prop George Rose was probably grateful the Warriors' only reward for his elbow on Aaron Heremaia was two points. He came down heavily on the hooker and the Warriors were awarded the penalty, Rose being put on report.
But the Warriors dropped their guard. Fullback Stewart, running off the inside hip of Cherry-Evans, danced through to score the game's first try, half an hour into the match. Had the half ended that way, with a 6-2 advantage to the Sea Eagles, the Warriors would have felt good about themselves. But six seconds before the break, Cherry-Evans scored.
It came not long after Manly back-rower Anthony Watmough produced a play-the-ball which was many kinds of wrong; the Warriors might have found themselves deep in the Manly quarter but instead found themselves defending for their lives. Having said that, the Sea Eagles began the play deep inside their own half; Glenn Stewart grubbered for winger Michael Robertson.
Suddenly the brilliance of the play was followed by another tinge of controversy. Cherry-Evans prevented Heremaia from getting a clean shot on his opposite number Matt Ballin, who eagerly took the ball from Robertson. Ballin was tackled short, but the Warriors found themselves short - Cherry-Evans took advantage to score.
Manly took that momentum into the second half. The Sea Eagles skipped upfield with relative ease every time they touched the ball.
The Warriors were their own worst enemies. Winger Krisnan Inu did superbly to jink his way out of his quarter but lost possession when he was finally brought down. Inu was fortunate Foran was ruled to have knocked on after fumbling a grubber by the Manly five-eighth with 25 minutes remaining.
By this stage, it was becoming less a matter of if, and more a case of when Manly would clinch the contest. It took another two minutes, and it was some play. Hopoate was being man-handled into touch when he flung the ball in-field to find Glenn Stewart who scored the try. This was an occasion when the man with the assist should get most of the credit.
The Warriors took a while to be woken last night. After 62 minutes, Johnson sent Manu Vatuvei over. And just seven minutes later, Johnson helped set up Elijah Taylor's try.
But Manly, through skipper Jamie Lyon, responded. Manly's known to have a heck of a chip on its shoulder - but when the chips are down, it's also a heck of a team.
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