Manly 28 Gold Coast 10

Since his debut at Brookvale 345 games ago, Steve Menzies has never been far from the action. Yet seldom can he have had a quieter night's work than last night, his penultimate game at the ground he has graced for 15 years.

Menzies will be back for one last hurrah, when the Sea Eagles host their opening finals game - a match already guaranteed, although their actual finishing position remains up in the air despite last night's 28-10 thumping of the Gold Coast.

The victory, and most importantly the winning margin, took Manly back to the top of the table in the final match of a round which featured the Knights knocking over Melbourne on Saturday night. Manly now lead the Storm by eight on the points for-and-against column.

Menzies was rarely knocked over last night, but saw more action on the short highlights reel of his premiership debut, against Brisbane in 1993, shown as part of the pre-match entertainment, which also saw the southern grandstand renamed in honour of Menzies and the coach who graded him and guided much of his career, Bob Fulton.

The closest he got to the stripe himself, despite the encouragement of the crowd of 14,755, was a smart final pass for a Steve Matai try midway through the second half that put Manly out to an unassailable 22-6 lead.

Menzies debuted wearing No.40 and in recent years has floated around the park filling holes, anywhere between wing and second row - where he played last night, swapping with Anthony Watmough, who ran on as five-eighth.

Centre Matai set the tone for the evening in the first minute, when he surged out of the defensive line and crunched Anthony Laffranchi just below the ribs.

Manly's aggressive, out-of-the-line defence continued, as did their direct running, and, 10 minutes in, they grabbed the lead when Glenn Hall put his head down and charged over on the back of a solid effort by Watmough.

The revitalisation of the journeyman forward - the complete opposite of Menzies - is just about complete. Menzies never left the northern beaches and plays loose while Hall - a veteran of the Bulldogs, Souths and the Roosters before settling on the peninsula - has been one of the highlights at Manly this season playing tight and tough. Since gaining a starting spot in round 20, Hall has bagged five tries.

Then it was Watmough's turn to jump out of the line, hitting James Stosic in an effort to match Matai's and the rewards were pretty much instantaneous. The tackle earned the turnover and Manly moved it sharply to the left where Matai pushed through Mat Rogers's tackle and got just enough of the ball on the chalk to claim Manly's second.

A third crunching tackle - with Menzies and Glenn Stewart involved - almost led to another try before winger David Williams hit Titans centre Josh Graham with everything, including his chin, which split Graham's head open.

But the Titans kept plugging away and, five minutes out from half-time Gavin Cooper, filling in at centre, gave the perfect illustration of the danger of not contesting bombs when he was allowed to catch a Scott Prince kick on the last tackle while surrounded by Manly jumpers. Or so it seemed. Cooper feigned a pass, swirled around and found a wide open passage to the line, pulling the score back to 10-6 at the break.

Three weeks ago Melbourne exposed Manly's almost total dependence on Matt Orford to run their last-tackle plays when they stifled the Sea Eagles' kicking game. The solution is clear: find someone else who can take some of the responsibility.

But knowledge is one thing and execution another and last night hooker Matt Ballin auditioned, with decidedly mixed results, for the role, spraying several kicks.

Orford had more luck with his kicks and, soon after the break, he sent a spearing effort about 20 metres until Scott Prince found himself unable either to catch it or avoid the ball. Instead, it bounced up off his shoulder, straight into Watmough's hands. Menzies was on the inside, but covered; Manly's other great tryscorer, Brett Stewart,was on the outside and added another to his collection.

Orford's luck with his kicking game continued. He collected a ricochet off Daniel Conn's left foot and it was collected gratefully, perhaps even gracefully for a man his size, by prop Brent Kite and the game started blowing out like bad surf.

MANLY 28 (S Matai 2 G Hall B Kite B Stewart tries M Orford 4 goals) bt GOLD COAST 10 (J Atkins G Cooper tries S Prince goal) at Brookvale Oval. Referee: J Robinson. Crowd: 14,755.