Warringah and Manly both gave away big starts in their round 18 clashes against Southern Districts and Eastwood but fought back to salvage points from their final regular season matches.

The Rats held on for a nail biting 40-39 win over the Rebels after trailing 31-5, while Manly fought back from 22-0 down to claim a 29-29 draw against Eastwood.

“It was an interesting afternoon at Forshaw,” Warringah coach Darren Coleman said.

“It probably opened our eyes a little bit to a few defensive issues that we’ve worked on but it also renewed our confidence in our maul, scrum and attacking play.”

The one point victory was enough for Warringah to earn home ground advantage for the third Northern Beaches derby of the year and while that has seen the Rats labelled as favourites against an understrength Marlins side, Coleman isn’t getting ahead of himself.

“I’m sure Manly would like to have a few extra players available but they’ve shown all year that they always stay in the fight and compete until the end.

“They’re undefeated since round seven so clearly they are doing something right. I think this game, like all derbies, will be deuces in the last 10 minutes.”

Manly beat Warringah 34-24 at Manly Oval in round seven before the two sides fought out a 20-20 draw at Rat Park in round 13.

Coleman said it’s almost certain to be tight again on Saturday.

“These games are usually decided up front and I think our guys will stand up, but they’ll be planning on trying to do the exact same thing.”

Marlins coach Billy Melrose also said he’s expecting a tight clash and said it wasn’t worth looking too much into the side’s earlier meetings.

“We won earlier in the year, then we drew, they knocked us out here last year. I know that players have memories but I’m not sure it plays a huge part in what comes tomorrow,” Melrose said.

“We just have to re jig things and get on with the job. Last year, we couldn’t convert our chance and this year we get another opportunity.”

Sam Lane, Harry Bergelin and Alex Northam all weren’t named in the Manly starting side after picking up injuries last week, but Melrose said he was confident in the ability of their replacements.

“We haven’t really spoken about what we need to do to win, we’ve spoken more about what we have to do to get ourselves in the fight,” he said.

“Sure there are changes and we’ll adjust tactically, but we’re just going to have to suffer a little bit and work harder together than we have in previous weeks.

“If we bring that on Saturday and get in the contest, we’ve shown an ability this year to get it done.”

Warringah (1-15)

Rory O’Connor, Luke Holmes, Harry Rorke, Sam Thomson, Jack Tomkins, Tom Preece, Mahe Vailanu, Sam Ward, Josh Holmes, Hamish Angus, Esera Chee-Kam, Sailosi Tagicakibau, Seb Wileman, Tyson Davis, Dave Feltscheer.

Manly (1-15)

Sio Tatola, Charles Abel, Mokani Fuavao, Alex Humfrey, Adrian Hall, Morgyn Cowan, Kotoni Ale, Samuel Shires, Harry Emery, Nick Holton, Mick Adams, Tyrone Smith, Josh Turner, Jed Ibbotson, Brenden Hartmann/James Ohmsen.