MANLY SEA EAGLES v NORTH QUEENSLAND TOYOTA COWBOYS
7.30pm, Saturday 30 April, Brookvale Oval
Referee: Ben Cummins, Chris Sutton
Review officials: Bernard Sutton, Jason Robinson, Ben Galea
Touch judges: Michael Wise, Shane Rehm
Cowboys: 2nd (six wins, two losses): 12 points
Sea Eagles: 8th (four wins, four losses): 8 points
CASUALTY WARD
Cowboys: Ray Thompson (ankle); Sam Hoare (knee)
Sea Eagles: Jamie Buhrer (thumb); Isaac John (pec); Jorge Taufua (collarbone); Jayden Hodges (ACL)
TEAMS
Cowboys: 1 Lachlan Coote, 2 Kyle Feldt, 3 Justin O’Neill, 4 Kane Linnett, 5 Antonio Winterstein, 6 Michael Morgan, 7 Johnathan Thurston (c), 8 Matt Scott (c), 9 Jake Granville, 10 James Tamou, 11 Gavin Cooper, 12 Ethan Lowe, 13 Jason Taumalolo. Interchange: 14 Rory Kostjasyn, 15 Patrick Kaufusi, 16 Scott Bolton, 17 Ben Hannant, 18 John Asiata. Coach: Paul Green.
Sea Eagles: 1 Brett Stewart, 2 Brayden Wiliame, 3 Jamie Lyon (c), 4 Steve Matai, 5 Tom Trbojevic, 6 Dylan Walker, 7 Daly Cherry-Evans, 8 Darcy Lussick, 9 Apisai Koroisau, 10 Nate Myles, 11 Tom Symonds, 12 Martin Taupau, 13 Jake Trbojevic Interchange: 14 Lewis Brown, 15 Addin Fonua-Blake, 16 Brenton Lawrence, 17 Siosia Vave 19. Matt Parcell. Coach: Trent Barrett.
MATCH FACTS
- The Cowboys have scored 39 tries in season 2016 to the Sea Eagles’ 24.
- Tries conceded is 30 for the Sea Eagles and 16 for the Cowboys.
- Head to head, Manly have won 25 and North Queensland 10. At Brookvale Oval, Manly have triumphed on four of seven occasions.
- The Sea Eagles’ biggest win over the Cowboys was a 46-4 win at Brooky in 1996 while the Cowboys won 30-12 at the same venue last year.
- The teams have split their eight matches.
MATCH UPS – JASON TAUMALOLO v MARTIN TAUPAU
These two man-mountains provide the aggression and power through the centre for their respective teams and their head-to-head duel will be a sight to behold.
Both men display a devastating power game with Taumalolo eating up 154m per game so far this year.
FINAL WORD
Cowboys coach Paul Green: “Brookvale Oval is always a tough game”.
Manly coach Trent Barrett: "You have got to be on your toes everywhere and we understand that. The key is to keep the ball off them and handle their middles".
