Manly have kept alive their hopes of retaining their NRL premiership crown with a 32-26 victory over a battling Cronulla in an entertaining clash at Toyota Park.

The two sides shared 11 tries in a pulsating encounter played in freezing conditions.

It's a tough result for the Sharks who showed great spirit in the face of a second-half onslaught where they were reduced to 12 men for 10 minutes after Trent Barrett's sin-binning.

A topsy-turvey first half saw seven tries scored with Ben Pomeroy going over twice for the Sharks who went in leading 22-16 at the interval.

It was the hosts who opened the scoring after just four minutes when 18-year-old centre Matt Wright leapt highest to score after a teasing kick from Barrett had been batted down by Luke Covell.

The Sea Eagles hit back almost immediately with two tries in quick succession through NSW winger David Williams, who reacted quickest to latch onto a Matt Orford grubber kick after 11 minutes.

Six minutes later Brent Kite barged over for his first try since last year's grand final to give Manly the lead but that advantage proved to be short-lived as the Sharks hit back with two quickfire tries from Blake Ferguson (23) and Pomeroy (26).

Pomeroy's score was a brilliant, sweeping move started by Covell who raced infield from the right flank, before Barrett and Anthony Tupou combined to send the centre over in the corner.

It proved to be Tupou's final contribution as he limped off with a hamstring injury.

The visitors hit back with five-eighth Kieran Foran taking advantage of a turnover by Wright to ease his way to the line.

Orford's missed conversion kept the Sharks in front and they extended their lead once more with another memorable try for Pomeroy.

This time it was Ferguson who demonstrated great footwork to stay in touch and flick the ball back to a grateful Pomeroy.

A half-time blast from coach Des Hasler had the desired effect on his side who came racing out of the blocks in the second half as they dominated the early exchanges with George Rose restoring parity in controversial fashion after 48 minutes.

The big front-rower powered his way across the line after Barrett had been sin-binned with referee Alan Shortall ruling he impeded Anthony Watmough as he sprinted toward the Sharks' try line.

Despite being a man down, the Sharks defended brilliantly as the visitors tried desperately to press home their advantage but failed with Orford hooking an easy kick wide much to the delight of the home supporters.

However, that brave resistance was finally ended when winger Tony Williams raced over after picking up a Michael Robertson pass (73), and with four minutes remaining the Sea Eagles put the Sharks out of their misery with their sixth try of the night when Matt Ballin burrowed over from close range.

Cronulla had the final say when the impressive Covell jumped above Tony Williams in the final seconds to score a try which took to him to a 1,000 points for his career.

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