A ruthless Manly have ensured there will be no fairytale NRL grand final finish for Brisbane skipper Darren Lockyer.

The

injured five-eighth watched helplessly from the sidelines as his

youthful side went down 26-14 at the Sydney Football Stadium against a

disciplined Sea Eagles outfit, who will now play their third grand final

in five years next Sunday.

The Sea Eagles were hugely impressive

and thoroughly deserved winners, but will be sweating on the

availability of Tony Williams and Steve Matai for the decider.

The pair were placed on report after being penalised for two challenges on Jharal Yow Yeh in as many second-half minutes.

Williams

was sanctioned for using a swinging arm to bring down the Queensland

winger and Matai for catching Yow Yeh with his knees as he

unsuccessfully tried to touch the ball down for a try.

Lockyer,

who sat the game out due to a shattered left cheekbone, finishes a

glittering career for the Broncos on 355 games and four premierships and

was sorely missed by his team.

A litany of soft penalties really

hurt the Broncos as a pair of tries from William Hopoate, four-pointers

from Matt Ballin, Brett Stewart and Kieran Foran and three goals from

Jamie Lyon sealed the victory in front of a crowd of 31,894.

Boosted

by the extra week off, the Sea Eagles came racing out of the blocks and

opened the scoring in the fourth minute through Ballin.

The

Broncos conceded two soft penalties allowing Manly to march their way

down the field and the hooker dived over from dummy-half to give his

side the perfect start.

From the resulting kick-off the visitors

almost hit back immediately when Corey Parker’s restart cannoned off the

crossbar and was regathered by Peter Wallace in front of the posts.

However, Manly held firm in defence to usher Yow Yeh into touch to snuff out the danger.

Jack

Reed then went close to grabbing his side’s first try of the night when

he hauled in Matt Gillett’s kick, only for teammate Dale Copley to

knock the ball out of his hands and the chance went begging.

That

setback appeared to knock the stuffing out the young Broncos, and

Copley then capped off a nightmare 60 seconds when he misread a pass

from Reed in front of his own posts.

The ever-alert Daly

Cherry-Evans latched onto the loose ball and teed up Will Hopoate who

scored his easiest try of a superb season.

Things got worse for

Anthony Griffin’s side in the 21st minute when Manly stretched their

advantage through Stewart’s try following a sharp pass from

Cherry-Evans.

The visitors had the last word of the half when Yow

Yeh produced a stunning take from a Gillett bomb, leaping over Michael

Robertson before twisting in mid-air to ground the ball over the line.

The

Sea Eagles started the second half in similar fashion when Hopoate

dived over for his second seven minutes after the restart.

The

Broncos hit back when Wallace bulldozed his way over from close range 10

minutes later, only for Foran to seal the game on the hour-mark when he

got in front of Gerard Beale to grab a Cherry-Evans kick and score near

the posts with Lyon adding the extras.

Griffin’s side battled

well until the end and Gillett was denied a try 10 minutes from time by

an amazing tackle from Lyon, before Copley added some respectability to

the scoring with a try in the corner late in the game.