Sea Eagles 20 Rabbitohs 2

Most football coaches can make a half-empty glass seem half full, but Jason Taylor took the skill up a notch yesterday after South Sydney slumped to their fourth straight loss.

Peering at a glass with a couple of drops in the bottom, JT saw enough precious liquid to drought-proof Sydney. Are they alone at the bottom of the table? Yes. Did Manly just cruise to a comfortable 20-2 victory? Yes. Did it matter? Not a wit.

"This is a great position for us to be in. It's a great position for us to show what we're made of," Taylor announced.

"Are we going to give up on ourselves or are we going to fight our way out the other side? Everyone else is going to give up on us; that's great, give up. But we won't and we'll come out the other side a better team."

Rugby league fans far and wide will hope it happens soon, if only to relieve the suffering. Yesterday's crowd of 14,426 at Brookvale Oval clapped at the end of the game. Like any partisan gathering, they were cheering their home team; perhaps, though, they were just glad they could all go home.

Manly did enough to win the match in the first half and returned after the break unable and apparently unwilling to do any more. The Sea Eagles announced their intentions just after half-time when, sitting 10 points clear at 12-2 with Souths consistently failing to threaten the line, Matt Orford took a shot for goal rather than go for the try that might have broken the Rabbitohs.

Instead, the game fell asleep. Souths made their way downfield, on several occasions using up only five passes in a set of six tackles, reaching an attacking position but having no attack to exploit it with.

Certainly, several players must have been rubbing sleep from their eyes when fullback Brett Stewart scored. It was always a question of when rather than if Stewart would cross the stripe, but the manner in which he did so provided the only highlight of the second half.

Souths fullback Nathan Merritt botched a kick for touch, which Stewart caught near the sideline 55 metres out. Off he set at a jog-trot, building speed as he approached the line, where Merritt compounded his error by allowing his opposite number safe passage to the tryline for a bizarre try more normally witnessed in the under-9s.

In the first half, Souths completely failed to produce a single decent last-tackle play, despite being fair to good in everything else they did. The forwards carted the ball up with enthusiasm and their defensive line was greatly improved on recent limp efforts.

But when they got into the Manly quarter, it all fell apart, and Stewart was never pressured at fullback. Often the kick never even got away, with five-eighth John Sutton and halfback Jeremy Smith showing a remarkable facility to kick the pill into the back, leg or stomach of a Manly player. Once, the pair managed to both achieve the same feat on the same last-tackle play.

In the first half, at least, Manly did much better. With forwards Brent Kite and Josh Perry and, when injected from the bench, Adam Cuthbertson bending the line, Orford inevitably found himself in good position to capitalise.

First try, however, went to reformed centre Jamie Lyon, showing off his snappy left-foot step. Fetuli Talanoa didn't enjoy watching, especially at such close quarters, and Sutton couldn't help out when needed.

Then Orford, who later conceded Manly were a little off the pace, showed why he's the money man with a neat grubber through the line that bobbled around in goal long enough for Cuthbertson to collect.

Manly coach Des Hasler was happy with two points, and the fact his opponents only scored two themselves. "Our defence has probably been our standout this year, so we're really pleased to keep any NRL side tryless. They deserve a huge wrap for that," he said. "They came to Brookie today pretty desperate so, with that riding on it, I thought we did what we had to do."

Hasler blamed referee Shayne Hayne for the poor spectacle.

"We really wanted to play an up-tempo game and I thought there was just a little bit too much lying around in the ruck and I thought it made it that sort of game. It was pretty dour," he said in masterful understatement.