Manly's finals hopes have been rocked, with superstar Haumole Olakau'atu suffering a season-ending dislocated shoulder in a dismal 42-4 loss to Canterbury.
Olakau'atu was in agony after an attempted tackle on Viliame Kikau early in Sunday's second half at Allianz Stadium, forced off the field in his first game since dislocating the same shoulder six weeks ago.
With Taniela Paseka still injured, second-rower Olakau'atu shaped as the ninth-placed Sea Eagles' most important forward in a very close fight for top-eight spots.
But coach Anthony Seibold expected Olakau'atu had played his last game for the year, admitting it had been a risk to bring him back so soon after the initial shoulder injury.
"It's disappointing to see that. That'll be him done for the season, I would've thought," Seibold said at full-time on Sunday.
"There's a risk when you hurt your shoulder, I think there's around about a 90 per cent risk you'll do it again.
"Obviously with a player of his quality and standing in our team, we wanted to pursue that risk. We didn't want to worry about next year."
Tough clashes against the Sydney Roosters, Canberra and the Dolphins in the coming month will likely decide Manly's finals fate.
Manly can take comfort from having won all three games during Olakau'atu's first injury lay-off, but that resilience deserted them as Canterbury ran in five unanswered tries after the break.
Samuel Hughes' second try in the final five minutes left the match as the Sea Eagles' biggest-ever loss to Canterbury.
"There was a fair bit of fatigue in that second half," Seibold said.
"I was really happy at halftime with regards to the (12-4) scoreboard. We were close enough if we were good enough, but obviously we fell away in the second half.
"That was like a finals game come early, and they gave us a big lesson."
The second-half blitz moved the Bulldogs into second spot on the NRL ladder and helped them atone for the heartbreaking loss to Manly in last year's elimination final.
This year's Bulldogs are rightly aiming for a finals campaign more similar to the 1995 season, with the club commemorating the 30th anniversary of that year's premiership triumph on Sunday.
This was Canterbury's most dominant performance since Lachlan Galvin's mid-season arrival, and the young halfback struck better chemistry with five-eighth Matt Burton than ever before.
"We've been seeing that at training for the last five weeks," said Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo.
"We adjusted our attack two days before the game - what we were doing wasn't really working. I think it worked well today."
After going into the break up by eight but still not comfortable, the Bulldogs scored the go-ahead try in the second half on the back of a Burton line-break.
The five-eighth scurried inside on a 30-metre tear and right winger Jacob Kiraz scored his second four-pointer on the next tackle to confirm a three-score lead.
The Bulldogs went the length of the field in their next set and Bronson Xerri reached out under the posts to put his side on course for victory.
Late in the first half, Xerri had sprawled on the turf in pain after being struck in the face by Kikau's boots as his teammate flew to make a tackle.
"I was worried about Bronson because he's a bit worried about his looks at times,'' Ciraldo quipped.
Manly scored their lone try through Jason Saab on the Bulldogs' makeshift left edge shortly thereafter.
But Xerri returned in style after the break and had a second try late in the final 15 minutes, when the Bulldogs went into party mode.