A late penalty conceded by Storm captain Harry Grant was the difference as Melbourne were defeated 18-16 by Manly at AAMI Park on Saturday.
Rueben Garrick kicked the penalty goal in the 79th minute to lift the Sea Eagles into seventh and improve their odds of a top-eight finish.
Earlier, Lachlan Galvin set up the winning four-pointer in his first starting appearance for Canterbury as they held on for a nail-biting 20-18 win over the Dragons at Accor Stadium.
Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo made the big call to drop incumbent No.7 Toby Sexton after a protracted selection saga and the 20-year-old playmaker vindicated his coach with the crucial assist.
Canterbury remain entrenched in the top four while St George Illawarra’s finals hopes are fading fast, now three wins behind eighth-placed local rivals Cronulla, who still boast one more bye.
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Parramatta gave Canberra quite a fright for the best part of the 80 minutes until the Raiders finished strong to complete a 40-16 victory at GIO Stadium.
Jason Ryles’ side led at half-time but could not go on with the job with their chances of avoiding the dreaded wooden spoon taking another hit, although there is decent competition for the kitchen utensil in 2025.
Ciraldo’s huge Lachie call pays dividends but Dogs yet to Galvinise
After much media consternation, Cameron Ciraldo finally made the big call to drop halfback Toby Sexton for marquee recruit Lachlan Galvin. In his first Bulldogs start, Galvin scored a try and set up Jethro Rinakama’s 78th-minute match-winning try.
However, the main playmaking responsibility throughout the tight win was shouldered by five-eighth Matt Burton and his booming left boot.
Sexton has been a loyal soldier for Ciraldo, impressing in Canterbury’s long-awaited return to the playoffs in 2024 and helping the Dogs to the top of the ladder this season but if the coach believes Galvin in the halves gives the team the best chance of breaking their premiership drought, it’s hard to disagree.
Galvin may be lacking in experience and maturity but his creative capacity is much more impressive than Sexton’s. Four years younger than the Super League-bound playmaker, Galvin also has a lot more room to grow.
Bellamy fumes as Manly upset error-plagued Storm
A Xavier Coates hat-trick wasn’t enough for Melbourne after Reuben Garrick’s late penalty goal ensured Anthony Seibold’s side left Victoria with an important two competition points. The Fox League director knew their mandate, cutting away to the famously angry coach pretty much every time his side made one of their shocking 13 errors in the loss to Manly.
It is just their fifth loss of the campaign but this latest defeat ensures Canterbury end the round in second place outright. However, the Storm still boast the much superior for-and-against, which may well come into play at the end of the season.
Sea Eagles screeching towards September
Amid media reports that Seibold’s job is on the line on the Northern Beaches, a big victory over the premiership favourites, in Melbourne, has breathed life into their finals tilt as they leapfrog Cronulla into seventh place on the ladder, dropping the Dolphins out of the finals spots, and the Roosters, after an awful showing on Friday evening, fall further to tenth.
At this point in the season, the top three is all but set in stone, the Warriors are unlikely to fall far enough to slip out of the eight and Brisbane have their mojo back. That leaves three spots that Manly Penrith, Roosters, Cronulla and the Dolphins will jostle for as you can put a line through 11th place and down.
With former Blues representative Tom Trbojevic and rising star Lehi Hopoate both in the starting side, and Daly Cherry-Evans still capable of producing match-winning moments, Manly are building towards a finals finish that could significantly improve Seibold’s prospects of staying on as head coach before enacting his touted transition plan to move upstairs at the Sea Eagles.
Ryles’ rebuild bearing fruit despite season to forget
The final score might not show it, but Parramatta stuck with the ladder-leading Raiders for three-quarters of Saturday’s clash in the nation’s capital. The Eels didn’t defend well in the final 20 minutes but before that point they were very much in the contest, even taking a slim four-point advantage into half-time despite sitting in 15th position on the NRlL ladder.
A win would’ve made more of a statement, of course, but in the context of the next few seasons dropping two points on a warm Canberra afternoon really won’t matter in the big picture for Jason Ryles. The pleasing thing for Eels fans would be the performances of potential long-term spine stars Isaiah Iongi and Joash Papalii, as well as Charlie Guymer who was very difficult to stop in the opening 40 minutes.
There’s still plenty of work Ryles needs to do before this team is competing for a finals finish but there were plenty of positives to take out of a loss that looks a lot worse than it was.
Resilient Raiders outlast plucky Eels
Everything certainly didn’t go the Raiders’ way in the 24-point win over Parramatta, overcoming a half-time deficit to consolidate their spot at the apex of the NRL ladder. Missing stars Mitchell Moses and Dylan Brown, the Eels went down the motorway with grim prospects of toppling Ricky Stuart’s men, some complacency perhaps seeping in for the Raiders after a strong start had them leading 12-0.
The middle section of the game then became a battle, before Canberra’s attack broke out for a four-try 20-minute blitz to finish off the plucky Eels.
As Canberra barrel towards a first minor premiership in close to 40 years, perhaps facing some adversity is not the worst thing to help prepare for a challenging finals campaign that is now only a couple of months away.
“If you think we’re at a certain level as a football team at the moment … we’re not going to have success going into the back end of the season,” Ricky Stuart said.
“There’s a team we want to become, and that’s what we’re chasing.”
The run home is soft for Canberra, with only two current top-eight sides on the schedule and none of the genuine premiership contenders, perhaps with the exception of premiers Penrith, who are building towards a remarkable fifth-straight title.
The likes of Joseph Tapine and Josh Papali’i know what it takes to win finals matches but the club’s younger contingent are yet to prove themselves when the intensity ramps right up in September.
The Kick: Gallant Dragons only have themselves to blame
It felt a bit like the last chance saloon for St George Illawarra after a season of near-misses and clunky attack had them sitting in 11th place with their finals chances hanging by a thread. After tonight’s last-minute defeat to Canterbury, and Manly’s upset victory over Melbourne, they sit six points back of arch-rivals Cronulla in eighth, with the Sharks still boasting a bye.
It looked like the Dragons had done enough to secure a much-needed victory at the Olympic Stadium after Sione Fainu crossed for a try to give his side a slim two-point lead but the scriptwriters had other ideas, as Galvin produced a moment of class to steal the two competition points right at the death.
As hard as the Dragons worked, as they have done for most of 2025, the margins are so slim at times in the NRL that one or two players can be the difference on a regular basis and the Dogs’ star recruit came up trumps when it mattered with Shane Flanagan’s men falling just short yet again.
Flanagan had some choice words for referee Adam Gee but the truth is a call here or there isn’t the reason the club are where they are.
“The game was taken away from us, I believe, from wrong decisions,” he said.
“The Luciano Leilua (penalty) was outrageous. The player never got to his feet. Ball planted… Luc doesn’t have to disappear, he can hold his ground. He’s got to get to his feet before he plants the ball. It’s been the rule all year and it cost us today.
“(Viliame) Kikau passes the ball, it hits (Tyrell) Sloan and goes forward. (For) 100 years that’s a knock on. Some decisions tonight cost us two points and could cost us an opportunity to play semi-finals.”
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