Passes hit the deck, sailed into the hands of waiting defenders or were destined to put the ball-carrier in hospital.

Eight Manly errors and five penalties put the contest on a platter for the visitors.

“That’s what it looks like when you put a lot of pressure on yourself as a side,” Cherry-Evans said.

“You don’t want to be falling into a trap of hoping your attack saves your defence”.

And then the locals produced one of the tries of the season to start their fightback, playing “exactly like the sort of footy team that we can be.”

A dropped ball from Trindall was latched onto by Haumole Olakau’atu on his own 10-metre line before he took off up-field and grubbered on the first tackle of the set.

Jason Saab and Reuben Garrick managed to make their passes stick at full flight, Koula kept up with them and scored, and just like that, Manly were back.

When Koula stepped back against the grain for his second, and Garrick knocked over a 61st-minute penalty goal, it was level pegging once more, and the first half was a distant memory.

Following the lead of the Gold Coast, South Sydney, Canterbury, St George Illawarra and North Queensland in mowing down double-figure leads this weekend (though the Dragons lost by a point), Manly were back.

But just as suddenly, so were Cronulla. Their late blitz leaves them in outright fifth on the ladder, with clear skies ahead. Or at least, eight of their next 14 games at home, along with three byes.

The Sharks have earned a reprieve given their travels have taken them from Las Vegas to Townsville, then Canberra and Perth, Newcastle and Brisbane. They host Melbourne next week.

Manly head to North Queensland with one half of footy to work with at least. The other is best razed from memory.

Michael Chammas and Andrew “Joey” Johns dissect the upcoming NRL round, plus the latest footy news, results and analysis. Sign up for the Sin Bin newsletter.