Souths stung by 'sticky spray' ruling as Manly continue Foran resurgence

By Michael Doyle

Manly overcame an early deficit to defeat South Sydney on Thursday night. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)

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Manly's resurgence under new full-time coach Kieran Foran has continued as the Sea Eagles provisionally move into the NRL's top four with a 28-14 win over the South Sydney Rabbitohs at Brookvale Oval.

The Sea Eagles outplayed the Rabbitohs to earn the 14-point win, overcoming an early deficit and the sin binning of fullback Clayton Faulalo.

But the home side was aided by a controversial decision early in the second half which led to Manly scoring a crucial try. 

Holding a narrow 10-8 lead, Faulalo scored in the 49th minute to extend Manly's advantage.

But replays appeared to show teammate Ben Trbojevic knocking on in the play-the-ball which preceded the try. 

Trbojevic put the ball on the ground cleanly, but when he took his hand away the ball remained stuck to his palm for a moment, leading to the bobble. 

Ben Trbojevic appears to knock on against South Sydney which led to a try. (Fox Sports)

Referee Adam Gee determined it was not a knock-on, telling Souths players that Trbojevic was always in control and the ball only stuck to his palm because of "sticky spray" players use to grip the ball.

“He never loses control of it, he plants it down and it comes up,” Gee was heard saying on the Fox broadcast. 

Because the incident was at the play-the-ball, the NRL Bunker is not allowed to rule on it. 

Souths coach Wayne Bennett was left unimpressed with the ruling, which came less than three minutes after the Bunker has chalked off a Rabbitohs try after winger Edward Kosi was deemed to have grounded the ball on the dead-ball line. 

"We spend all this money on the bunker and we still don't get it right," Bennett said.

"We're not going to use that as an excuse but the bottom line is that's what they (the bunker) are there for." 

Trbojevic would then cross over six minute later to give Manly a 14-point lead that Souths could not reel in. 

Faulalo limped off after scoring his controversial try with an injured hamstring.

During his post-match press conference, Foran said the initial assessment was "low grade strain" and Faulalo would hopefully be fit for Manly's next match in two weekends.

Brisbane Broncos lock Pat Carrigan will be out for six weeks the club has said, needing surgery that will keep the Queensland representative out of the remaining State of Origin matches.

Patrick Carrigan will miss six weeks, ruling him out of State of Origin selection. (Getty Images: Bradley Kanaris)

Carrigan limped off during Brisbane's shock loss to the winless St George Illawarra Dragons at Lang Park last Sunday.

The Broncos were hopeful earlier in the week their star lock would not need surgery on his syndesmosis injury.