NRL: Manly Sea Eagles blow Canberra Raiders away to end five-game winning streak

What appeared to be a Jamal Fogarty try went straight up the other end for a Reuben Garrick four-pointer and the Manly Sea Eagles were away.

Raiders co-captain Elliott Whitehead appeared to have the ball knocked out of his hand by Jake Trbojevic, spilling into the Manly in-goal area for Fogarty to touch it down.

But it was instead ruled as a Whitehead loose carry.

The Canberra Raiders should have reacted better and defended the call, but they were on the wrong end of a number of questionable decisions that played a big part in the Sea Eagles' 42-14 win at Canberra Stadium on Sunday.

It ended the Raiders' five-game winning streak - one that coincided with the return of co-captain Jarrod Croker from injury.

They now face a daunting task against South Sydney in Sydney next Saturday, although the Rabbitohs will be without a number of State of Origin stars.

The Green Machine was also unlucky in the lead-up to a long-range Tom Trbojevic try, where the Raiders should have had a six-again call after Trbojevic played at a Jack Wighton grubber.

It was instead called a handover and again the Sea Eagles went up the other end and scored far too easily.

Manly second-rower Haumole Olakau'atu could have also been sent to the sin bin for a high shot on Croker.

He could have a nervous wait for the match review committee to see if he'll face any further action.

Whitehead was also put on report for a high tackle on Brad Parker.

"I think they said he attacked my arm, but I don't know I haven't really watched it," Whitehead said of the no-try call.

"They said he hit my arm and the ball came free, but when I looked on the big screen he attacked the ball.

"It might've changed [the game], it might not have but tonight we just weren't good enough so we've got to get back to training and fix up what went wrong tonight."

Trbojevic scored a hat-trick to propel himself into the NSW State of Origin team - although he had a shaky start, dropping the first kick of the game.

He ended up with 239 run metres in a big return to form.

It should be enough for him to slot into the NSW centres for game one in Adelaide next Wednesday.

Corey Horsburgh didn't do his Origin chances any harm with a solid first half, while Hudson Young grew into the game - whether they've done enough to be named on Monday morning is another thing.

Ben Trbojevic didn't fare so well, coming off with a hamstring injury in the first half that ruled him out of the game.

Like Tom Trbojevic, Josh Schuster also didn't have a great start in his first game back, with Whitehead running straight past him untouched to score the opening try of the game.

But he grew into the game and played a prominent role in the visitor's attack, with three try assists.

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Manly coach Anthony Seibold felt the Whitehead-Fogarty no-try was a big moment in the game - although he saw from a Sea Eagles point of view.

"I think the big turning the game was Tom and Jake came up with a try-saving tackle on Elliott Whitehead and off the back of that we scored a couple of tries and went on with the game," he said.

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart said they'd prepared well, but there were aspects of the game he wasn't happy with.

But he emphatically dismissed the question of whether the team would lose confidence from the loss.

"No. We'll just get straight back on the horse," Stuart said.

AT A GLANCE

MANLY SEA EAGLES 42 (Tom Trbojevic 3, Brad Parker, Reuben Garrick, Josh Schuster, Jason Saab, Ben Condon tries; Garrick 5 goals) bt CANBERRA RAIDERS 14 (Elliott Whitehead, Ata Mariota tries; Jarrod Croker 3 goals) at Canberra Stadium. Referee: Gerard Sutton. Crowd: 14,730.

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