An unconvincing Manly has reclaimed top spot on the ladder, after seeing off a dogged Penrith 34-16 tonight at CUA Stadium.
Despite conceding a soft early try, Manly piled on three tries in the space of 15 minutes to storm to an 18-6 advantage, and the floodgates looked set to burst open.
But the Panthers rallied with tries either side of the break to pull within two points of the Sea Eagles, and when Maurice Blair nailed a 40-20 in the 45th minute, the home side had all the momentum.
The home side looked set to reclaim the lead when Jarrod Sammut grubbered into space behind the line, but the young halfback knocked on with the line beckoning.
It was to prove ultra-costly for the home side, with back-to-back penalties giving Manly a chance for some breathing space.
A deft inside ball from the returning Jamie Lyon resulted in a four-pointer to Glenn Stewart, with late four-pointers to Brett Stewart and Steven Bell sealing the result.
The win gives Manly a 26 point lead over Melbourne on differential in the race for the minor premiership, ahead of the Storm's clash with Souths tomorrow night.
Manly's normally watertight defence was embarrassed early by departing Panther Tony Puletua in just the eighth minute.
The UK-bound forward shrugged off feeble attempted tackles from Glenn Stewart and Steve Menzies to stroll over under the posts.
But Stewart and Menzies combined to make up for the defensive lapse three minutes later, with the former delivering a perfectly-timed second man ball for the latter to stride through a gaping hole and cross in the corner.
Matt Orford nailed the sideline conversion, and the Panthers fragile defence was shown up again almost immediately after the restart by Bell.
The former Origin winger took the ball on his own 40 and sliced between Michael Jennings and Maurice Blair, before linking with David Williams for Manly's second try in four minutes.
Williams grabbed himself a double in the space of ten minutes after a ridiculous floating pass from Nathan Smith presented the flying winger with a gift intercept and an unimpeded 40 metre run to the line.
The Sea Eagles looked set to carve the Panthers to pieces, but an uncharacteristic error followed by a penalty conceded by Bell gave the Panthers some sustained possession, and they made it count.
Hooker Paul Aiton exploited more sloppy Sea Eagles defence to dive over from dummy half in the 35th minute, with Michael Gordon's conversion cutting the to cut the deficit to just six points at the break.
The Panthers continued to make inroads into the Manly lead early in the second stanza.
A kick to the corner from Sammut looked to be to big, but was impressively batted back infield by rookie William Isa straight into the hands of Smith, who crossed to close the gap to two.
Gordon's conversion attempt cannoned off the upright and was waved away, making it 18-16 with 36 minutes to play.
MANLY 34 (D Williams 2 S Bell S Menzies B Stewart G Stewart tries M Orford 4 J Lyon goals)
bt PENRITH 16 (P Aiton T Puletua N Smith tries M Gordon 2 goals)
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