The Canterbury Bulldogs coach Des Hasler lost out to his former assistant Geoff Toovey as Manly edged out the Bulldogs 12-10 in an absorbing National Rugby League encounter on Friday night.
Manly's last visit to the home of the Sydney Olympics ended with them lifting the Premiership last October, just a month before Hasler's acrimonious departure from Brookvale to take the helm at Belmore.
The Brisbane Broncos maintained their NRL dominance over Gold Coast with an impressive 26-6 win at Suncorp Stadium.
The Broncos made the difficult drizzling conditions look easy as they scored five tries to one,
Kiwis forward Alex Glenn scored two tries and had a hand in the final try too, a candidate for try of the year to another New Zealand international, fullback Josh Hoffman, after some brilliant skills by five-eighth Corey Norman.
Norman toed a low pass from a falling Glenn and kicked it a second time before cleverly tapping the ball one-handed onto Hoffman, who scored under the posts in the 70th minute.