Canberra five-eighth Blake Austin says Canberra can’t let Manly get under their skin if they are to get revenge for a hostile golden-point loss earlier in the season.
A Dylan Walker penalty goal had the help of the upright to sink the Raiders at GIO Stadium in round eight, a fitting climax for a fiery contest.
It was a rollercoaster night for Walker who gave as good as he got.
He was placed on report for slamming Austin’s halves partner Aidan Sezer into the turf, sparking one of the many spotfires which broke out during the night.
A little more than a month later, the two sides meet again at Lottoland on Sunday.
But Canberra have vowed not to get sucked in if the Sea Eagles try to rile them again.
“We definitely were disappointed with the way we allowed them to get under our skin a little bit,” Austin said.
“We’ll definitely be looking to be better prepared for that.”
While some may use the heartbreaking loss as motivation to get one back on Manly, Austin prefers to look at the game on its merits.
“The season’s too long and gruelling to worry about little personal or team battles with other teams,” he said.
“We’re disappointed with the way we responded to some of the baiting and we’d like to fix that up.”
Austin made a couple of late errors in Canberra’s 24-16 win over the Sydney Roosters on Sunday, which unfortunately clouded an otherwise strong performance.
“My game’s going to be judged on how I do run the footy because it’s been such an integral part of my game,” Austin said.
“For the first 10 weeks of the competition I just kept hearing from everywhere to run the footy. Sometimes it’s a little harder than it sounds.
“I was probably caught between distributing the ball and running the footy too much in the first 10 rounds.”