OFFLOADS OFF THE MARK

"It's no good just flopping the ball out the back," Steve Roach said in commentary, frustrated by the Raiders' unbelievable offload rate which against the Sea Eagles rarely amounted to positive gains, and instead lead to errors on multiple occasions.

The stat line was extraordinary - 24 offloads by Canberra to just seven by Manly.

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart admitted post-game it was usually an area they excelled at, but on Saturday they got it wrong one too many times.

"It is [about picking the moments]. A couple of them weren't in the moment, and it hurt us," he said.

DCE KICKS SEA EAGLES INTO GEAR

Coming into the game the Raiders knew that Daly Cherry-Evans' kicking game would cause headaches, but his performance on Saturday afternoon was a masterclass.

The Queensland half had two 40/20s - one was actually a rare 20/40 - and kicking to the corners he consistently troubled the Raiders backs.

At times it appeared that the sun and long afternoon shadows in Mudgee may have affected players, but the swirling torps and floating bombs he was launching into the heavens would make even the best NRL players sweat.

Cherry-Evans also set up two tries off his kicks - a grubber and a bomb - two forced drop-outs, and added a field goal with four minutes left in the game.

TURBO TURNS UP THE HEAT

There were a few uncharacteristic moments from Tom Trbojevic - like his knock-on under a beauty of a bomb by Jack Wighton - but when the Dally M Medallist found his rhythm there was no slowing him down.

He had an astounding 289 run metres, nearly 100 metres more than Canberra's best in that department (Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad - 196 metres). His night included 84 post-contact metres, two line breaks, one line break assist, and 8 tackle breaks to go with one try.

"The difference tonight was the star power," legendary half Cooper Cronk said of the match.

"Cherry-Evans and Turbo [Trbojevic] just put on a clinic."

RUSTY REF

NRL referee Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski didn't have a great game. There were calls that caused confusion for players and for commentators, and missed decisions too - Jason Saab's forward pass inside his own 10-metre line in the second half had Raiders players furiously protesting.

The most perplexing moment had to be the penalty awarded to Canberra seconds before the half-time siren. Raiders halfback Brad Schneider elected to go for two just before Przeklasa-Adamski clarified it was actually a six-again penalty, and with time expired, there would be no further action.

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