MATT ORFORD is yet to sit down and watch the horror movie that was last year's grand final.
Blood, guts, gore and a gruesome ending to a genuine bloodbath - it's an 80-minute slasher film of the flogging from Melbourne that would still make the Manly captain's stomach churn. As of last night, he has another replay to avoid.
On a night of high drama, Cronulla prop Ben Ross was knocked unconscious and rushed to hospital for emergency scans after a sickening head clash with Josh Perry.
Perry's face was left bloodied and battered but Ross was out cold and on his way to nearby Mona Vale Hospital after their high-voltage collision in the fifth minute.
They had each other's number from the opening whistle, pushing and shoving as an all-in brawl was only narrowly averted before most people had taken their seats.
Ross went charging straight at his target, Perry, in the fifth minute but was left motionless on the 40-metre line as an eerie silence descended over a packed house.
A gaping wound on Perry's face was taped up as Ross failed to move a muscle. A stretcher was rushed on to the field. The players had dispersed when they realised how serious his condition had become.
Few sights on a league field are as harrowing as an unconscious player being placed on a stretcher and led up the darkness of the tunnel.
The Sharks scored a rough-and-ready victory. Greg Bird was belted by Glenn Stewart in a 68th-minute tackle that the match review committee might care to look at. Stewart gave away a crucial penalty because from the same play, Manly winger Michael Bani crossed in the corner.
The Sharks led 16-6 at the time, with 12 minutes left, but video referee Phil Cooley disallowed the try because of Stewart's involvement and gave the visitors a penalty.
Game over.
With tensions rising after Ross's departure, referee Jared Maxwell over-reacted when he penalised Manly fullback Brett Stewart for a supposed high tackle on Sharks No.7 Brett Kimmorley. The initial point of contact from Stewart was around Kimmorley's chest.
Sea Eagle Anthony Watmough opened the scoring off a Matt Ballin pass in the 10th minute before Luke Covell's penalty from the Stewart tackle made it 6-2 just five minutes later.
Maxwell told Steve Matai to get off a tackled player, which came as something of a surprise given the Manly centre was out injured and the whistleblower was instead talking to David Vaealiki. Maxwell then disallowed a try to Sharks fullback Brett Kearney because of a 50-50 pass from David Simmons. It was a decision that could have gone either way. But the Sharks led 8-6 at half-time after winger Bryson Goodwin's four-pointer and Covell added the extras from the sideline.
Watmough was penalised for a high shot in the 10th second of the second half. Wrong decision.
The Sharks snuck four points ahead from another Covell penalty when Steve Menzies was pinged for holding down a tackled player too long. Right decision. The last 30 minutes settled into a dogfight. Sharks coach Ricky Stuart looked tense enough to crush his walkie-talkie in his bare hands. The crowd was 15,424 and when four Sea Eagles slammed Kearney back into his in-goal, they were witnessing league at its punishing best.
The kicking games of Orford and Brett Kimmorley were spot-on. But the little stuff kept going the Sharks' way: a few penalties, speculative passes that stuck, bits and pieces.
