By Adam Lucius

It's a sign of how far Manly has come that a bonus point win over competition leaders Southern Districts failed to overly impress coach Phil Blake on Saturday.

Don’t get us wrong – Blakey was happy to take five points and leave the Rebels with zero - but the Marlins' performance left him a touch cold.

Souths played with 14 men for 73 minutes after breakaway Radike Samo was sent off for using Brian Sefanaia's head to drill for oil underneath the Manly Oval surface.

The Marlins always had a tough, physical game in their keeping from that moment on but probably should have won more comfortably.

The victory keeps the men in blue in second spot, two off Southern.

"The problem when a player gets sent off that early is everyone thinks you should win by 60," Blake explained.

"But sometimes it's actually harder playing against a team playing a man short for that length of time.

"Even though they lost a player early, I still think they showed plenty of character.

"I didn’t think we played that well to be honest. Our ball control was the worst it's been all year."
 
The home side led 15-10 at the break courtesy of tries to Elvis Taione and Adam D'Arcy and went further ahead early in the second half when No.8 Tevita Metuisela smashed his way through a handful of defenders from 20m out for a try built on raw power and strength.

The consistent Chris Cottee scored Manly's fourth try on the hour and, at 27-10, the hosts looked home.

But the Rebels kept coming, Wallaby Rob Horne crossing three minutes later to set up a tense finale.

But the Manly defence held firm, a desperate Souths attempting a penalty goal in the 77th minute to at least grab a bonus point for a loss of seven points or less.

"It was tough. They defended really well and made it hard for us," D'Arcy said.

"You didn't realise they only had 14 because they played pretty well.

"But it's five points against the top side and they didn’t get a point so we’ll take that any day.

While disappointed with his side's execution at times, Blake could not fault their commitment.

"Souths are rated one of the best forward packs in the game," he said.

"We spoke about how tough and resilient they were. They've got quality players across the park and it's no fluke they’re on top of the competition.

"One up against two you turn up and they did but we matched them.

"We got five points and they got none so that's lovely."

Arch-rivals Warringah lie in wait at Rat Park next Saturday.