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Elvis rocks Rebels but Lane all hound dog

By Adam Lucius

 Manly stretched their unbeaten run to five with Saturday's 24-22 win over Southern Districts but coach Tim Lane warned that's where the streak will end unless there is a dramatic improvement.

Lane ripped into his side moments after the fortuitous two-point victory at a chilly Manly Oval, castigating his players for dropping off tackles and allowing the Rebels to storm back into the game and almost snatch it.

In fact, had Souths' kicker Rohan Saifoloi found his mark with a 40m penalty attempt at the death, the visitors would have walked away with the points.

The Marlins can thank Elvis Taione for the win, the popular front-rower picking up his first hat-trick of tries at any level.

"I'm usually lucky to score one, if that. I'm a front-rower, c'mon," Elvis said with a laugh

So talk us through the winning try.

"I saw there was a chance there and I grabbed the ball and went over,' Elvis explained.

"But I would have traded the three tries for a win if that Souths kick had gone over

"The first half we were on the pace but we dropped off after that.

"But we trust in each other and we knew we could get there."

Things started off brightly enough for the Marlins, with five-eighth Scott Daruda producing a perfect crossfield kick for unmarked winger Richard Hooper to score in the Ozzie Merritt corner.

Taione opened his account on the half hour and collected his double soon after as the Manly lead blew out to 19-3.

It looked a matter of Manly by how far at that stage and perhaps the players clocked off as a result.

Souths scored tries either side of the break and then hit the lead 22-19 with 16 minutes to go.

Suddenly a game the Marlins had in their control was in real danger of slipping away.

Taione had other ideas, taking matters into his own hands three minutes from time.

But Lane was in no mood to celebrate, declaring (with expletives deleted for our young audience): "We defended like schoolkids. If we defend like against Sydney Uni next week, we'll cop 50 points.

"It's just bulls..t. You don't win a game with 40 minutes, you've got to win it with 80.

"Inconsistency is our biggest problem.

"They either pull their fingers out and start making some tackles or they'll find themselves in second grade."

With three rounds of the regular season left, the Marlins (51 pts) are in third just behind Uni (52) and Eastwood (54).

The men in blue take on the Students at Uni Oval next Saturday.

*The Marlins enjoyed a clean sweep of the lower grades on Saturday.

Second grade won in a canter 62-17, thirds got home 20-8 and fourths hung on for a 22-16 victory.