Steve Orme at Brookvale Oval
Canberra has snapped a four-match losing streak with a thrilling 24-22 victory over an out of sorts Manly at Brookvale Oval on Saturday night.
Despite being outplayed for much of the opening half, the Raiders held a slender two-point buffer at the interval on the back of intercept tries to Joel Monaghan and Daniel Vidot, and a late score from interchange forward Joe Picker.
The Raiders extended their lead five minutes in when Terry Campese barged over from close range, with Jarrod Croker keeping his perfect record with the boot in tact to make it 24-16 the Raiders' way.
Canberra continued to dominate but the Sea Eagles held firm in defence to remain in the contest, while the Raiders were also showed their willingness to tackle when four defenders denied Tony Williams a match-turning try on the hour.
The Raiders were unable to land the knockout blow in a tense final quarter but ill-discipline from the Sea Eagles, who conceded three consecutive penalties late in the contest, kept the visitors in front.
Manly full-back Ben Farrar scored off a Kieran Foran kick in the 77th minute to set-up a thrilling finish, but it wasn't to be for the hosts and a deflated 10,027 home crowd.
The win keeps the Raiders' slim finals hopes alive, with the Green Machine needing to win seven of their remaining eight games to be assured of a finals berth.
For the Sea Eagles, the loss - their fourth in five matches - could see them drop as low as ninth position heading into Round 19.
Canberra's victory was soured somewhat by a syndesmosis injury to Shaun Fensom with the lock expected to be sidelined for several weeks, while Adam Mogg also suffered a shoulder injury.
The hosts dominated the opening exchanges but it was the Raiders who opened the scoring in the sixth minute thanks to an 85m intercept try from Monaghan.
Manly had the visitors stretched down the right-hand side but Monaghan's decision to come out of the line paid dividends, with the former NSW winger swooping on Ben Farrar's pass and out-sprinting three Manly defenders to score under the posts.
Croker added the extras for the early 6-0 lead.
Monaghan's try sparked the Sea Eagles into action and giant winger Williams levelled things up when he dragged three defenders over the line and planted the ball with his outstretched right arm.
Replays indicated Williams may have been short of the line but the try stood, with Shane Rodney adding the extras from the sideline to level things up at six apiece.
Manly stayed on attack but the Raiders scored against the run of play for the second time in the contest to re-establish their six-point buffer.
Anthony Watmough made a bust up the middle of the field and attempted to find Jamie Lyon on his inside but Mogg took an intercept from behind and quickly headed downfield.
The veteran didn't have the pace to make the 60m journey to the line and found Vidot on his inside to reclaim a six-point lead.
Manly hit back with tries to Steve Matai and Michael Robertson in the space of four minutes to take their first lead of the night.
The first try was the result of two kicks from Trent Hodkinson, with Matai making the most of a fortunate bounce in the in-goal area to level the scores on the half-hour before Robertson