Is it time to recognise the Sea Eagles as a genuine contender?

Parra were robbed by Melbourne in the first play-off that was their GF but were handsomely beaten by the Cows.

I think Manly will finish fourth with Canberra 5 or 6.

When Gus Gould predicted a few weeks ago that Manly would not make the finals I knew we were in with a chance of winning the comp. All this sudden “Manly are the real deal!” rot from the experts worries the hell out of me. Of course they are the “real deal”. It’s been obvious to anyone watching closely. I just wish the talking heads would direct their wisdom elsewhere, they’re wrong about 90% of the time- take a look at their predictions at the start of the season- embarrassing.

Manly have won every one of their comps being underrated by the majority of football fans... long may it be the case

It's nice to have your team despised. That means they're doing something right.

I think it's a silly question. Of course they are a threat to go deep into the finals. They showed on Saturday evening how good they are and in my opinion they will only get better as the season progresses. Des Hasler has got them playing like the Sea Eagles of old. He's got them believing in themselves.

Garrick had a couple of shocking games at the start of the season defensively, but he’s been pretty solid since. Manly I think are short 1 bench forward. Boyle is passable at best, and Waddell, after showing some promise early, has lately been emulating his relegated team mate Gosiewski coming up with dumb penalties and errors, however displaying good energy, but that’s not enough.

State of the art gymnasium, hydro pool, weights room, and of course furniture made alllllll the difference!

Both wingers I think are major negatives in the defence department for Manly. Both have positive benefits to Manly eating metres off the line and Garrick is quick if given some space. But Garrick is also clueless in defence, and Taufua is lazy and slow in defence except for the odd blindsiding from way back.

I'm sorry to say that when you mentioned Jorge Taufua positively you displayed some ignorance relating to Manly's actual strengths and weaknesses. Jorge's basic problem is that he is SLOW and is easily out run, out turned and outjumped by opposing wingers. I'm sure that if you studied the stats they would disclose that Jorge has only scored a few tries ( always from close in), but conversely has let in quite a number of tries by his opposites. The other winger Garrick, is quick enough and can finish from long range and is a pretty good goal kicker. I have previously posted that at full strength the Manly pack can match it with any in the comp. Now add in the positive presence of Walker at 5/8 plus the ever improving skills and power of Suli in the centres, plus of course the Turbos, DCE and the two props, and Manly do present a pretty good all round side. I just wish they had one more high class and quick winger

You should never say never. Even if they don't make the top 4 , it is still only 3 wins in a row in September to make the GF. And a team with a base of quality that includes Turbo, Jurbo, DCE, Taupau, & Fainu cannot be discounted. I think they are a bit dodgy in the outside backs particularly regarding the defence of their wingers. But I won't be discounting them.

Are they kind of Parramatta circa 2017? In both scenarios the teams finished in the bottom 3 the year before. Neither had expectations. In 2017, Parra floated around mid table and were still about 7th at this stage of the season, but came home winning about 9 of their last 11 to finish 4th in the regular season. Bundled out in straight sets in the finals but were probably never really considered a premiership threat.

"There are only 3 teams in this comp". Lol Dessie.

Nothing to see here, Souths should be dominating the forums, what’s herbert planned for September?

I don't think we can be truly considered a contender unless we finish in the top 4 #undertheradar

At the start of the season when everyone was predicting wooden spoon doom for Manly, I wasn't thinking they would be where they are right now, but knew they were too good to get the wooden spoon. Go Manly!

Haslers attitude has been refreshing from the start. While the punters saw a 3 or 4 man team with no depth , he saw a decent footy team which could do some damage and said so. We are still a long shot but I reckon history is partly on the side of a dark horse this year. The Roosters are fighting the back to back curse and the Storm will run out of steam at some stage. If those two don't win it that leaves a number of teams who can and if Manly enter the finals fit and healthy we need to try and win the thing, who knows what happens next year.

I’ve been thinking they’re in the mix for a while now, but Saturday is officially the moment they stopped flying under the radar. Cracking the top four could be tough though. While they’re only two points behind the Roosters and Raiders, they’re approximately 70 and 80 points behind in differential. So they effectively have to make up two games out of the next six. They play the Raiders in Canberra among those which will be a big matchup.

The answer is yes, still have a hard run in but with the win over the despised storm it will give us plenty of confidence. Nobody should be surprised, we beat the Rabbitohs(first team to), Canberra and Eels (haha) so why not, I personally believe it’s a year early but won’t stop believing