NRL Finals RECAP: Manly bow out of finals race as 'crazy start' proves costly against Roosters

That wraps up our coverage of tonight's semi final.

We'll be back next week for whatever the Friday night clash is, but make sure you check back through the week for all the coverage, analysis and everything else you could need.

Join us then!

Well, as expected, the Storm will play the Roosters and the Panthers will play the Sharks for spots in the NRL grand final.

My very unexpert (is that a word) tips - Storm by 10, Panthers by 22.

If you win, you owe me a beer.

Manly five-eighth Luke Brooks said the "crazy" start to the game - that saw both Jake Trbojevic and Tolu Koula taken from the field for HIAs from the opening two hit-ups - put his side immediately onto the back foot.

And from there they never recovered.

"Disappointed, a crazy start to the game, and the Roosters were too good tonight," he told Danika Mason on Nine's coverage.

"It doesn't help losing two of your players at the start, but I thought the boys hung in there well.

"We started pretty well but our errors in the end, you can't give a team like the Roosters that many opportunities."

It was Brooks first finals appearance in an illustrious NRL career.

"I was happy to be here, but disappointed with the result," he said.

"We wanted to go all the way, but unfortunately that was not a good performance tonight."

The Roosters have bounced back, and they'll take on the Storm in Melbourne next week.

They won 40-16, and dominated for much of that clash.

I'm not convinced they'll beat the Storm though. Although I said after last week these four games - the two this week and the two next week - were unnecessary and we should just go straight to a Storm-Panthers GF.

Perhaps that Sea Eagles try woke the Roosters up a bit, because that was a great play from the chooks.

First was the kick from Sandon Smith, then came the mark - it's an AFL term but it's absolutely appropriate in this context - from Manu, and then when he was almost totally wrapped up came the simplest of offloads to Young.

He could've made himself a cuppa before needing to ground that ball. There wasn't a defender near him when he scored!

Smith missed the conversion.

The Sea Eagles are in again, and it was off the back of some pretty soft defence.

Dom Young spilled the ball to give the Sea Eagles the field position, and then Luke Brooks threw a bullet pass for Ben Trbojevic to run through the line.

The Storm and Craig Bellamy will absolutely be watching this from the Roosters and will be liking what they're seeing.

"The one thing Melbourne and Penrith don't do, they don't let you off, if you give them a penalty or a cheap get out of therein, it would be 10 minutes before you take it again," Andrew Johns said for Nine.

And that was absolutely the Roosters letting Manly off. Perhaps they've gone into a bit of self preservation to not risk an injury, but that wasn't great.

Anyway. Garrick kicked the extras and the lead is only 20.

Joseph Suaalii must've wanted to protect his perfect Allianz goalkicking record, because Sandon Smith just kicked another two-pointer to increase the lead once more.

Tommy Turbo was penalised for an escort, from which came the two points.

There are still more than 10 minutes to go in this clash.

The Sea Eagles have scored a consolation try, but it's worthy of being on the highlights reel!

Daly Cherry-Evans put a lovely kick towards the in-goal, but Talau got an absolutely wicked bounce. He managed to get a hand to it, but it went forward.

But in order to ensure it wasn't a knock-on, he was - while basically slipping over - able to get a hand to it, wrap his fingers around the head of the ball, push it back away from the dead-ball line and ground it.

Live, it didn't look like a try, and it was sent up as such by referee Grant Atkins, before the Bunker overturned the call.

It left the Nine box gobsmacked.

"A bit of one-handed wizardry from Tommy Talau," Nine caller Mat Thompson quipped for Nine.

James Tedesco, in his 250th NRL clash, has a double, and this one is surely all done.

"Like he's done all night, he's never far from the ball," Billy Slater quipped in commentary for Nine.

But it was a great team try from the Roosters. Joey Manu got a lovely ball away, before Connor Watson danced through some defenders himself, and then gave the ball to his skipper to score.

"They're on fire, the Roosters," Andrew Johns said for Nine.

Another Suaalii kick, and another Suaalii conversion. 30 points is the lead.

Daly Cherry-Evans was penalised for holding back, and Suaalii added two more.

He's now 28 from 28 at Allianz Stadium, in what will be his final NRL game at the ground.

Last game for the foreseeable future anyway as he goes off to rugby.

Not a bad stat though.