Although Manly finished in fourth in 1986, the closeness of the competition meant that any of the finals teams were capable of beating the others on their day. Fifth place again had to be decided by a mid-week play-off, this time Balmain beat Norths and progressed to a meeting with Manly for the first week of the finals. The Tigers scored a strong 29–22 win and Manly were knocked out of the finals in the first week, for the second year in a row. Manly were without the services of captain Paul Vautin for most of the season after the test back rower had broken his arm in a game against Penrith in late April. At the end of the season, 4 players (Cleal, Hasler, Shearer and Phil Daley, the son of club secretary Doug Daley) were selected to go on the 1986 Kangaroo tour. Prior to the end of the season, Manly also signed goal kicking outside back and dual-rugby international Michael O'Connor from St George for the 1987 season. O'Connor would give Manly fans cause for optimism by being the top point scorer on the Kangaroo Tour with 170 points (13 tries, 59 goals) including a personal haul of 44 points (4 tries, 14 goals) in the Kangaroos 3-0 Ashes series win over Great Britain.