Penrith's clunkiest performance in weeks has been enough to secure a 24-12 defeat of gallant Manly, whose NRL finals hopes appear to have ended at Brookvale Oval.
The first-placed Panthers were a long way from their dual premiership-winning best on Thursday night, squandering chances in good field position and struggling to click without regular five-eighth Jarome Luai (illness) and hooker Mitch Kenny (injured).
But Penrith managed to turn the bounce of the ball into points when a desperate Sea Eagles side could not.
"It wasn't our most polished display by a long shot," said Panthers coach Ivan Cleary.
"But in terms of what we were trying to do, stopping a team who were desperate and threw a lot at us, I thought it was a good result."
Despite outperforming the visitors for the first half, Manly's season now looks certain to finish outside of the top eight.
The Sea Eagles' points differential is inferior and even if they win their final three games, they are unable to finish with better than a 50 per cent winning record.
Manly set the tone early, worrying the Panthers with their expansive attack, and twice broke the premiers' goal-line defence from close range - a notoriously difficult task in 2023.
"We had to go down swinging," Manly coach Anthony Seibold said.
"If we just tried to come out here and arm-wrestle the Panthers, well they've been clearly the best at that type of game for a couple of seasons.
"We threw the ball around, we used our weapons."
The score sat 12-12 at the break but Penrith were lucky to be on the board at all.
Their first try came from a Stephen Crichton intercept against the run of play and their second after Liam Martin knocked on into Manly's Raymond Vaega as the pair contested a kick.
Had there not been a tackle in between Martin's knock-on on the right and Crichton's grounding of the ball on the left, the bunker would almost certainly have rescinded the try.
"Those types of calls, it's human error but that hurts you. But we had 40 minutes to go. I'm not going to sit here and whinge about it," Seibold said.
The second half could hardly have started worse for the Sea Eagles, losing both Ben Trbojevic and Brad Parker to game-ending head knocks inside two minutes of the restart.
They never regained the ascendancy enjoyed before the break.
Penrith's third try came after an unusual play from Manly fullback Reuben Garrick, who booted the ball straight back to the Panthers after receiving it from a kick.
Manly's defensive line still scattered, Sunia Turuva danced through Lachlan Croker and Aaron Woods for a try from long-range.
It wasn't until Brian To'o crossed for a seventh-straight game that the Panthers began to breathe easily.