Des Hasler refused to blame a controversial eight-point try for Manly's 30-14 capitulation to the Roosters at the Sydney Football Stadium on Sunday.

Roosters centre Shaun Kenny-Dowall, who starred for the Tricolours with a hat-trick, raced away for an 85-metre intercept try despite Manly centre Steve Matai appearing to be held back by a Rooster.

Manly co-captain Jamie Lyon then landed on Kenny-Dowall as he planted the ball for the try, making contact with the Kiwi international's head leading to a potential eight-point try.

Lyon was put on report for the incident, and Todd Carney nailed both goals to level the scores at 14-all after Manly had raced to a 14-0 lead.

But Hasler wasn't in any mood to criticise the referees for the match-turning decision.

"At the end of the day that was 14-all, and they still posted 30 against us, we were still in the game" Hasler said after the game.

"It could've gone either way couldn't it? Was there a penalty in Matai being taken off the ball? Possibly."

Lyon was more forceful in his assessment of the eight-point try.

"I thought it should've been a penalty to Matai," he said.

"He got tackled without the ball and he was trying to go for the ball, I suppose I probably shouldn't have tried to tackle him but i dint think it was worthy of an eight-point try that's for sure."

But the controversy didn't take away from a magnificent second-half from the Roosters, who ran in 30 unanswered points to charge back into the premiership reckoning.

In a ten minute period either side of half-time, the Roosters scored three quick tries and shifted the momentum of the match irreversibly.

They were led by a rampant Kenny-Dowall and an equally-impressive Carney, who steered a talented young team around with serious ease.

When Carney strolled over through some non-existent Manly defence in the 49th minute to give the home side the lead, the 18,962-strong crowd erupted.

And when he and Kenny-Dowall combined to send winger Sam Perrett over for the Roosters fourth of the afternoon, the comeback was complete and Manly were left shell-shocked.

Roosters coach Brian Smith admitted he was amazed at the resilience of his young squad, who did remarkably well to recover after nearly being bashed off the park in the opening 35 minutes

"It wouldn't have surprised us if Manly had punched us to death today," Smith said.

"They're a really physical team and we haven't stood up to that this year.

"I thought they really turned it on (and) if our guys hadn't done something about it could've got butt-ugly."

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