Manly coach Phil Blake fired off this warning to his side after it wore down Northern Suburbs on Saturday to remain on top of the Shute Shield ladder: "Now that you leading the competition, you become the hunted instead of the hunter."

Never has a truer word been spoken after Norths bundied on early and made the Marlins fight all the way for their 28-12 victory at Manly Oval.

The Shoremen, playing for their season, ripped in from the opening minute and kept up the intensity all afternoon.

"We knew they were going to come out all fired up. If they lost, that was their semi-final hopes gone," Blake pointed out.

Manly only led 7-0 at half-time despite enjoying a mountain of possession and dominating field position, Lui Siale providing the touch down after slicing through on 34 minutes.

The visitors levelled early in the second half through Cameron Shepherd, who swooped on a loose ball and motored to the line.

Siale put Manly back in the lead in the 50^{th  minute, running off a lovely ball from Mark Swanepoel for his second try.}

Swanepoel blotted his copybook just three minutes later, throwing a wild pass for Cameron Crawford to pick up and race 60m to score untouched.

The Marlins were the dominant side but it wasn't showing on the antiquated scoreboard.

Dylan Sigg settled nerves just before the hour with Manly's third try and when Swanepoel laid on a five-pointer for Tyrone Smith with 10 minutes left, it was game over – complete with bonus point.

"It wasn't pretty but we're happy to get the result," said half-back Chris Cottee, celebrating his 150th game.

"They were strong in defending a lot of our strengths so we had to adapt and we took a little longer to adapt that we would have liked, but we improved the further the game went on.

"You can’t take any team for granted. They had plenty of energy at the start of the game and they played a good style of football but we stepped it up at the end."

Swanepoel, who had a great game, felt he owed it to his team to make amends for the error that led to Crawford's try.

"After you do something like that you've got to shake it off and work harder for the team," he said.

"We've only got ourselves to blame for the points they did put on us.

"But credit to our guys. We work for the full 80 and put teams away at the end."

Blake added: "It was a good test. We had a mountain of possession but didn’t convert it into points."

"We did what we had to secure the win but we need to finish better than what we've been doing.

"We've got to fine-tune a few things, particularly in attack.

"But we take the points and move on. You're not going to play perfect football and win by 40 every week."

 The Manly forward pack was simply magnificent, with Wil Brame, Elvis Taione and Sigg leading the way.

The Manly make the journey up Parramatta Rd to Concord Oval next Saturday for a clash with bogey side West Harbour.