This seems to happen so often it has become expected by all. How many times have we heard commentators at half time talk about how possession WILL even up and then see it actually happen? Seems like a lot to me.
The thing is it makes no sense for possession to even up. If Team A has 60% possession in the first half that is no reason to think Team B will have the greater share after halftime. If anything I would expect the trend to continue as Team A should keep doing what they were doing (assuming they are winning) and Team B are the ones who will be fatiguing from extra defence and also likely to be feeling scoreboard pressure, both of which should make Team B more likely to push the rules and give away more penalties. If anything I would expect a lopsided penalty count at halftime to become more lopsided as the game goes on, or for Team B to sort themselves out as the game goes on and 2nd half penalties to be pretty even, with possession evening up the least likely scenario. For mine, the reason this doesn't seem to happen is either Team B get extra leeway because they are behind on the scoreboard/penalty count, Team A gets policed more harshly because they are ahead on the scoreboard/penalty count, or most likely a combination of the 2.
So how come Manly usually don't get the square up penalties and tend to be on the wrong end of the count? The theory doing the rounds last year was that both Grand Finalists were intentionally giving away penalties to protect their line. Watching the games that seems more plausible for the Roosters than Manly because they seem to give them away at relatively convenient times. My guess would be because (a) we are often in front on the scoreboard despite having less penalties (to be fair this woul be the case for the Roosters too), or (b) the refs want us to lose.
The only thing I disagreed with in Tooves' 10K rant last year was the bit about the lopsided penalty count being a problem in itself. There is no reason penalties should be handed out equally if one team is more disciplined than the other. In summary though he was dead right - THERE NEEDS TO BE AN INVESTIGATION!!!!!