Manly are writing off their shock loss to the Warriors as a mental lapse and relish the prospect of four tough contests to rediscover their best ahead of the NRL finals.
Des Hasler’s men have only six days to stew on the 24-16 boilover in Auckland on Friday, a result which heaps extra importance on next week’s home match against Wests Tigers.
The fifth-placed Sea Eagles then close out against the Raiders, Storm and Eels meaning the post-season isn’t guaranteed but second-rower Joel Thompson wouldn’t have it any other way.
“You want a tough run in, I think you want to play the best teams. I look forward to those and fixing up the areas that we let ourselves down in,” he said.
Thompson didn’t like admitting his team were out-enthused by a Warriors side coming off a 46-12 loss to Canberra which had sparked a withering critique from coach Stephen Kearney and the club’s supporters.
In contrast, Manly had won three on the trot in impressive fashion and had started to be talked up as premiership contenders.
Try-scorer Thompson saw a Warriors ambush coming but his team couldn’t respond, trailing 18-0 until the 67th minute before three late tries set up a tense finish.
“They were humiliated last week … and you could see the reaction from the coach that they were going to come out,” Thompson said.
“Every individual out there played their best game and we should have matched them for energy, which we’ve been doing all year but we didn’t.”
Hasler was perturbed at the Warriors slowing his team down excessively in the tackle.
It reflected in 13 penalties against the hosts but Hasler was pleased it didn’t result in a sin bin punishment, even though the referees had issued a warning to the hosts about repeat offending.
“I’m not a fan of the sin bin, I thought that was a disaster last year,” Hasler said.
“You’ve just got to wear it. We probably should have come up with a couple of (better) options maybe.
“Defensively, as far as the numbers are concerned, they looked really good for us and you look at the game and wonder ‘how did that one get away?'”
Hasler will keenly await the diagnosis for centre Brad Parker (knee), second-rower Curtis Sironen (possible hamstring) and interchange forward Morgan Boyle (head), who were all forced off.