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Manly ran into a bizarre pre-game hiccup on their way to Suncorp Stadium before their NRL finals clash against South Sydney on Friday night.
Kick-off was delayed by 15 minutes to 8.05pm (AEST) after the Sea Eagles encountered heavy traffic as they made their way down the highway to Brisbane from their Sunshine Coast base.
Local radio station 4BC reported that there was 27 kilometres of southbound traffic delays which caused Manly to arrive an hour later to the ground than originally planned.
Nine’s rugby league reporter Danny Weidler revealed that a police escort was necessary to assist the Sea Eagles from being further delayed for kick-off.
“The M1, both ways, it’s torture,” Sea Eagles and Queensland legend Paul Vautin said pre-game on Nine.
“It’s awful… it’s like a car park, especially on a Friday.”
Rugby league great Brad Fittler joked that both coaches would be pointing the finger at each other, with South Sydney also running slightly late.
“I think Souths are late as well,” Fittler told Nine.
“The paranoia of Des Hasler and Wayne Bennett – [they] would be going crazy at the moment.
“Des would be blaming Wayne and Wayne would be blaming Des.
“They’re both very experienced and I don’t think it will put anyone off.”
Rabbitohs captain Adam Reynolds explained to Nine how the team were informed about the minor delay.
“We sort of just got told walking in, so it was news to us,” Reynolds said.
“It doesn’t really matter, we just delayed our prep a bit. But nothing really changed much for us.
“I’m probably the most relaxed person in the room.”
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