The Newcastle Knights have faded late during a 30-6 loss to the Manly Sea Eagles in the wet at Hunter Stadium.
The game was tight for most of the night, but the Sea Eagles ran over the top of the Knights with three late tries, perhaps in part due to Newcastle tiring as injuries caught up with them.
In his second game back from a knee injury, Kalyn Ponga left the field in the first half after successive head knocks but returned, winger Dominic Young had to be helped from the field by trainers after 20 minutes, but bench forward Jirah Momoisea copped the worst of it.
He came reeling out of a tackle holding his arm, with replays showing a nasty dislocation of his left elbow.
Fresh legs off the bench gave Manly the late surge they needed, with Karl Lawton barging over from dummy-half under the posts 11 minutes from full-time.
Manly followed up with tries to Haumole Olakau'atu and Taniela Paseka — Lawton giving the final pass — and the game was over.
It gave coach Des Hasler and his men their third NRL win in a row.
And they compiled the five tries-to-one victory without fullback and Dally M player of the year Tom Trbojevic, who was out with a knee injury.
But the Knights, playing just their second home game in five rounds, had some rotten luck with two tries disallowed as well as the injuries.
Despite the horrid weather in Newcastle, Daly Cherry-Evans picked up from where he left off on a dry track at Mudgee last week.
After booting 21 kicks (651 metres) in the Sea Eagles win over the Raiders last week, he had 22 for 681 metres on Thursday night.
He also set up a first-half try for Morgan Harper with a perfectly weighted corner kick.
