Manly coach Des Hasler felt his side finally got a deserved rub of the green after grinding out a 14-6 NRL win over the Warriors in Auckland on Sunday.

Hasler has endured a frustrating start to the season, criticising officialdom on several occasions as well as being caught on camera breaking a dressing room door.

So the Sea Eagles coach was happy to take a contentious try to centre Steve Matai which sealed the win at Mt Smart Stadium, Manly's second of the campaign.

Video referee Phil Cooley awarded Matai's 66th-minute try citing benefit of the doubt, despite footage proving inconclusive as to whether he got downward pressure when pouncing on a grubber kick.

Hasler, though, felt it was justice after fullback Ben Farrar had been sin-binned earlier in the first half for a professional foul.

"The calls probably evened out in the end," said Hasler, who infamously promised to pay for OPSM appointments for officials after they missed a blatant forward pass in a loss to Parramatta a fortnight ago.

"The sin-bin call was a bad call, that was an inexperienced call from an inexperienced referee (Chris James)

"I'm sure Robert Finch (the referees' boss) will address that through the week.

"The grounding, well that's in the KPIs (key performance indicators for referees), so we'll take that as a try."

Not surprisingly, Warriors coach Ivan Cleary had a different view and and couldn't resist a swipe as his counterpart.

"I'm sure Des would think that, maybe I need to start pulling some doors off hinges," Cleary said.

"There's already a bit of conjecture about it, I'm not sure why it was benefit of the doubt.

"You can look at it and think that's the sort of day it was, they had more luck than we did."

In a low-scoring match, Matai's try provided the killer blow as the Sea Eagles secured much-needed back-to-back wins.

The Warriors came into the match severely depleted, with Simon Mannering and Manu Vatuvei both picking up hamstring injuries in last week's win over Brisbane to join an already-lengthy injury list.

Sea Eagles winger Michael Robertson showed skill in the 18th minute to finish off a sweeping attacking move, evading Kevin Locke's desperate tackle and managing to keep his body inside the touchline.

Farrar was sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes towards the end of the first half for a professional foul on debutant Bill Tupou.

Tupou made a big break down the left, and Farrar clearly tried to slow the play with a second tackle.

Wade McKinnon conceded a penalty in the 36th minute for swearing at one of the officials and Jamie Lyon kicked the two points to send his side into the break up 6-0.

Five minutes into the second half, centre Jerome Ropati saw off three tackles on a 20-metre run to give the Warriors their first points, with James Maloney squaring the game with a sideline conversion.

A Lyon penalty put the visitors in front 8-6 before Matai's controversial effort.

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