Hero to zero inside six days – Cronulla veteran John Morris can now spend a whole summer asking himself ‘why?’
With Manly out on their feet, feeling the effect of last Saturday’s bruising 4-0 loss to the Sydney Roosters, inspirational skipper Paul Gallen lunged under the posts for what he thought were four match-changing points five minutes from fulltime.
The score was 24-18 and the impressive Michael Gordon had the simple task of putting the ball over the bar to seize momentum of the game.
But there was a problem.
“You can’t call that no try, I beat five men,” Gallen implored referee Shayne Hayne.
“Interfering with the marker,” came the response.
And then, on the giant screens at either end of the stadium, Morris’ private hell was there for all of 23,837 crowd to see – as vision showed the veteran hooker dragging Matt Ballin to the ground.
Less than a week earlier, Morris was the toast of the Sutherland Shire when he stopped a certain try from Kane Linnett in the final seconds of his side’s 20-18 win over North Queensland.
Manly – buoyed by their let-off and playing on adrenaline – saw out the game to book their place in a third successive preliminary final where they will face South Sydney next Friday.