Manly brush off spectre of ACC to down Broncos Broncos 14 Sea Eagles 22 Matt Ballin of the Sea Eagles is wrapped up by the defence. IF events at Cronulla on Friday night were supposed to spook the other NRL teams named in ACC's doping report, then clearly no-one told Manly. The Sea Eagles are one of six NRL teams mentioned in the report , which caused its first round of havoc some two hours before kick-off in the only Friday night match of round one when Sharks coach Shane Flanagan was stood down and four officials sacked. Kieran Foran of the Sea Eagles passes the bal. But Geoff Toovey's Sea Eagles were anything but distracted as they took on Brisbane in a game which marked the Broncos' premiership debut against the same opposition 25 years ago. Despite some sheer brilliance from the home side in the first half, Manly gamely fought their way to the front after half-time - and stayed there. Coincidentally, Brisbane had led that 1988 match 14-6 at halftime and that was how the ledger stood at the same stage last night. Brisbane had trouble scoring points last year but had seemed to turn over a new leaf in that department during the quick-fire opening 40 minutes. That all began to change when Manly halfback Daly Cherry-Evans beat Peter Wallace and held off Corey Norman and Andrew McCullough to score in the 48th minute. Captain Jamie Lyon's goal narrowed the margin - and then the Eagles gobbled it up. Jorge Taufua of the Sea Eagles attempts to break through the defence. Charging onto Brett Stewart's pass, centre Steve Matai roared into the opposition half, feigned to pass and then arrowed at the posts as he held off the desperate defence of Scott Prince to just reach the try line. It was Matai's second try and was soon followed by another Sea Eagles score, to winger David Williams, after Cherry-Evans' big hit jolted the ball loose from Jack Reed only metres from the Broncos's own line. Broncos fans had been given a "rally towel" to wave at last night's match, bearing their colours and the name of a sponsor. The reverse of it was white and some cynics suggested it was more appropriate for the second half of an entertaining encounter. Broncos coach Anthony Griffin said he felt his players had "rolled over" early in the second half. They jumped us with energy and got us by the throat," he said, referring to Manly's seven-minute spree. Three tries ... and that was it. When you give up a 14-6 lead and, all of a sudden you're down 22-14, psychologically you pay a price for that. Brisbane went into last night's game having failed to score more than 20 points in all but one of their previous 10 games. They could have reached that mark by half-time, had centre Reed not been rightly denied a try by video referees Paul Mellor and Neil Wharton right on the break. The Broncos eschewed a penalty goal attempt at the 13-minute mark and hooker Andrew McCullough scored what the on-field officials believed to be a try second later. When the eyes in the sky found that the rake had been short, defender Anthony Watmough was penalised for being off-side at marker. This time, the home side went for the safety first option and Prince opened the scoring with a penalty goal. A battle between centres Matai and Justin Hodges was spicy from the beginning, the latter throwing the former over the western touchline during the early exchanges. On the other side, England centre Reed looked set to score the first try of the match but was pummelled by Jamie Lyon. But Hodges delivered the first real scoring blow, stepping between two defenders and unleashing a sublime flick pass from his right hand to Matt Gillett, who was standing on his left, for the second rower's 19th-minute touchdown. Prince goaled for 8-0. Manly could have responded when five-eighth Kieran Foran hacked a loose ball from 20 metres out in the 24th minute - but he put too much weight on it and the Steeden dribbled over the northern dead-ball line before he could reach it. When Manly finally managed to score, it came after captain Lyon forced a restart by centre-kicking to the in-goal when he was hemmed in by defenders in the north-eastern corner. MANLY 22 (S Matai 2 D Cherry-Evans D Williams tries J Lyon 3 goals) bt BRISBANE 14 (M Gillett L Maranta tries Prince 3 goals) at Suncorp Stadium Referees: S Hayne/A Shortall. Crowd: 31,139