No Tom Trbojevic, but that’s no excuse for Manly.

Coach Des Hasler refused to let his NRL side off the hook over Sunday’s heavy loss to Cronulla despite their most-influential player sitting on the sidelines.

Leading into the match, the star fullback had scored or set up 11 of Manly’s 16 tries but, after a 40-22 loss in Gosford, Hasler pointed the finger at his team’s defensive attitude.

“I’m not going to use that as an excuse,” he said.

“There were other areas in our game where we weren’t proficient enough.

“Before you start searching for those kind of answers, we scored 22 points. It’s just those other areas that we need to work on and the players know that.”

The Sea Eagles trailed 34-6 before three late tries flattered the scoreline in miserable conditions at Central Coast Stadium.

With five-eighth Dylan Walker and Trbojevic sidelined long term with injury, substitutes Lachlan Croker and Reuben Garrick tried hard but were stifled in attack.

Hasler said he was disappointed with the defensive intent and labelled the loss a ‘wake-up call’ ahead of next week’s clash with Newcastle.

“(Defence is) what they’re most disappointed about,” Hasler said.

“Particularly coming into tonight, we were only averaging two tries (conceded) a game.

“Three came off kicks, so it’s those areas that we need to fix.

“(Croker) was ok – we didn’t have much of a platform to work on.

“We need to go back and strip it back and get ourselves sorted. It was a good wake-up call.”