Manly's winning points appear safe following the time-keeping blunder which allowed two Sea Eagles players to return early from the sinbin in their NRL win over Melbourne.
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Fallout from the controversial 24-4 victory over the defending premiers at AAMI Park continued on Sunday, with the NRL launching a review into the process surrounding timekeeping and dismissals.
It's understood the NRL believes a number of factors combined to have Apisai Koroisau and Matt Wright return from the bin one minute and 41 seconds earlier than they should have during the second half.
The NRL was quick to point the finger at the clubs immediately after the match, saying they were responsible for timing their own sin binnings.
But in the case of away trips clubs can pass that job to the home team and no Manly official was present for the role on Saturday night.
The matter was then further complicated on two counts.
Firstly, the referee appeared set to resume play after Dylan Walker was sin-binned and Curtis Scott was sent off following a fight, before calling Manly captain Daly Cherry-Evans back over again and sin-binning Koroisau.
It's then believed Manly later approached the NRL ground official over whether Wright could return to the field in place of Walker at the end of the sin-binning, given Walker (fractured eye socket) was undergoing a head injury assessment as a result of being punched by Scott.
Ultimately, there was a breakdown in the process with the ground manager, who then allowed the pair to return almost two minutes early.
With Manly leading 10-4 at the time, they held out a Melbourne raid with 13 men rather than 11 as the Storm went the length of the field in the ensuing set.
Melbourne officials were fuming, with football manager Frank Ponissi angrily approaching an NRL official on the sideline while chief executive Dave Dongahy reportedly phoned officials at head office.
The Gold Coast are the last club to have been sanctioned for a replacement breach in 2016 against Canberra, while the Bulldogs lost their points for a win over Penrith in 2009 when they had 14 players on the field in the dying minutes.
However it's understood the NRL will likely not penalise Manly over the matter, given the contributing factors to the incident.
Australian Associated Press
