NRL Round 26 Preview and Prediction - Manly Sea Eagles v Penrith Panthers @ Lottoland

Manly Sea Eagles (8th) v Penrith Panthers (6th) @ Lottoland
 
Preview - It's a Saturday night blockbuster at Lottoland as the Sea Eagles lock horns with the Panthers in a bottom of the Top 8 scramble. With Manly far from assured of being in the finals, and Penrith capable of dropping to as low as 8th, both sides will be desperate for a victory in a bid to aid their finals’ cause. Manly looked to have secured their finals’ status with a wild 22-21 Golden Point come-from-behind victory against the Warriors. However, the Dragons upset of the Panthers has now put them in a precarious position. The Panthers blew a golden chance to go 5th and put some heat on the 4th placed Eels with that 16-14 home loss to the Dragons. The Panthers looked to have all the running in the second half with a gale behind their backs, and up 14-12; however their attack failed to fire in the past 30 minutes as the Dragons doggedly held them out. 
 
History – These teams met recently in Round 18 at Pepper Stadium where the Panthers ground out a low scoring 16-8 victory in a match where they had plenty of the ball and territory. Historically, Manly have enjoyed playing the Panthers, with a 50 to 33 win record. However, in recent times it's been all Penrith. The Panthers have seven wins from their past eight matches against the Sea Eagles, including a 31-24 last start win at Lottoland. The Panthers have won 3 from their last 4 games at Lottoland.   
 
Manly Sea Eagles’ Scouting Report - Curtis Sironen has been named for his first game in a couple of months after tearing a pec in Round 16 against the Sharks. Manly captain Daly Cherry-Evans responded from his poor game against the Bulldog with an inspirational game last week against the Warriors, kicking 2 brilliant field goals to keep the Sea Eagles in the Top 8 heading into the final week of the season. 
 
Penrith Panthers’ Scouting Report - Penrith have a couple of key injury issues heading into this crunch game with both Dylan Edwards and Matt Moylan likely to be missing. Edwards suffered a Grade 2 medial injury, while Moylan is expected to miss this week due to his troublesome hamstring. Dean Whare goes back into the fullback role, with Tyrone May continuing at five-eight. 
 
 Verdict - Panthers by 1-8 in a high scoring game

 This game will be a cracker as both sides can potentially miss the finals if they lose. I expect Manly to produce by far their best performance of the last month, after 3 very average performances on the road, despite their last minute heroics against the Warriors. Being back at Lottoland in front of what should be a sold-out crowd will lift the home side and won’t be an easy environment for Penrith. The Panthers might have won 9 from their past 11, however they are struggling to put 80 minutes together and they really ought to have beaten the Dragons at home last week. I'm not quite sure how to approach them at the moment; however they probably deserve slight favouritism over Manly. I just think Manly are having too many problems defensively at the moment, and Penrith can get home in a tight game to score their finals’ spot and put their season in jeopardy.