Even siege mentality masters Manly concede the daunting circumstances they face going into Saturday’s NRL elimination final against Cronulla are “testing”.
The injury-riddled Sea Eagles lost yet another player for the match on Monday when gun forward Martin Taupau pleaded guilty to a high tackle charge.
It means he misses just the one match, but his teammates are facing an uphill battle to secure the win that would allow him to return in next week’s semi-finals.
Taupau joins Tom Trbojevic (pectoral), Joel Thompson (broken arm), Taniela Paseka (knee) and Toafofoa Siplkey (knee) on the sideline this weekend.
Curtis Sironen is also expected to be gone for the rest of the season with a newly-diagnosed foot injury, while Morgan Boyle (shoulder) and Jack Gosiewski (knee) are no certainties to return.
It comes after players only learned on Sunday night they may lose their hard-earned home ground advantage for the do-or-die match after traces of asbestos were found on the hill at Lottoland following excavation last week.
“We have had a lot of injuries in the last month in particular. That’s certainly not ideal coming into the finals series ” said captain Daly Cherry-Evans on Monday.
“We have certainly lost some players who have had a massive impact on our season to date.
“It’s a really testing time for our playing group.
“This is where as a player you get challenged and for me, it’s just a good opportunity.”
The last time Manly faced such a prospect headed into the finals was back in 2010, when an injury-plagued squad were demolished 28-0 by St George Illawarra.
But Cherry-Evans insisted the Sea Eagles would still use the recent setbacks to their advantage after proving doubters wrong all season under coach Des Hasler.
Among the favourites for the wooden spoon before the competition began, Manly were as high as fourth before the injury crisis began a fortnight ago and they lost their last two games.
“It’s taken a lot of attention away from us. The expectation has certainly dropped from everyone outside the Manly building,” Cherry-Evans said.
“We need to feed off that. It’s certainly a backs-against-the-wall mentality for Manly.
“The expectation wasn’t really there for us at the start of the season, and we’ve proved a lot of people wrong.
“But just to make the finals isn’t really good enough … You don’t want to just last one week.
“You want an opportunity to press as far into the finals series. That’s certainly the plan for us.”