Insipid Manly must change from top to bottom

If there has ever been a more worrying performance on the Northern Beaches than the one the Manly Sea Eagles dished up last night against the Penrith Panthers, I’d like to hear about it.

The Sea Eagles, who have already made a woeful start to the season at both ends of the park, made things a whole lot worse in the Round 4 opener as the premiership favourites rolled past them with ease.

The final score might have read 46-6 in favour of the men from the foot of the mountains, but it’s some of the attitude and insipidness of Manly which will have coach Des Hasler and the fans most worried.

While the questions surrounding Hasler are only going to continue to grow, particularly considering he refused to make a single change to a well-beaten team over the first three weeks, there is almost no excuse for some of the tries Manly let in last night.

But unfortunately, it’s not the first time, and while we will get to those tries in a moment, the Sea Eagles have now let a staggering 156 points from their four games at 39 per match, while only scoring 34 at under nine per game. It’s one of the worst starts to a season in recent memory statistically, and while they can point to no Tom Trbojevic or a difficult draw to start the season, neither of those issues explain why Manly have been as poor as they were.

And the second reason, just quietly, doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on given they allowed the Dragons of all teams to run on 38 last week in Wollongong.

To put it all in perspective, no team have let in more than 150 points in the first four rounds in the last decade, Newcastle the only side going close with 146 in 2016, while Manly’s for and against of -122 from four games is also breaking records.

Not that they are records they want to break.

But last night was a whole new level of low. The tries to Brian To’o were simply pathetic, Jason Saab virtually rushing off his line after the ball was already in flight for the second of those while many of the other tries might as well have been defended by wet newspaper strung together between traffic cones – and even that might be giving the home side too much credit.

(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Defence is an attitude, and Manly simply haven’t got it. No matter how good the teams they have played are, the vision which should disturb Manly fans more than any other was that of Jake Trbojevic giving his teammates a spray following a Panthers try and half the team facing the other direction, seemingly not listening to what their experienced lock had to say.

It was an absolutely disgusting look for the club’s youngsters, seemingly refusing to respect Trbojevic, and at this point Des Hasler must pull no punches in changing his team before the wooden spoon becomes more of an inevitability than something they can fight off.

Out of last night’s team, it’s clear that Jason Saab must be the first to head back to Blacktown for New South Wales Cup next week, while Cade Cust must start at hooker given the moments of impact he has been able to provide off the bench over the failing Lachlan Croker.

Dylan Walker is clearly not cut out for fullback either, so a change is needed there even if Tom Trbojevic is still not ready to go.

They are the three most critical changes, with Tevita Funa or Christian Tuipulotu likely to come into the back line, Cust in at hooker and Walker potentially playing from the bench, given it’s unlikely either Daly Cherry-Evans or Kieran Foran would be dropped given their standing in the team.

Then there are the forwards. Only youngsters Josh Schuster and Sean Keppie, as well as recruit Josh Aloiai and leader Jake Trbojevic can hold their heads high. The rest were, in a word, terrible as they got mown down by the Panthers pack.

When you consider Martin Taupau only had 69 metres from nine runs, it paints a picture about what sort of platform the backs had to work behind, but then, it’s hard to gain metres when you can’t hold onto the ball, which is another problem haunting the Sea Eagles.

(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

As for the rest, namely Jack Gosiewski and Taniela Paseka, they may as well have not played and Manly could have been better off, so little was their involvement outside of stacking up missed tackles.

Keppie or Aloiai must come back into the starting side next week, with Paseka likely to miss out while it could also be time to hand a debut to Ben Trbojevic, who could surely do no worse than those named over the first four weeks.

Whatever the case, Hasler must make radical changes to his misfiring band. The Sea Eagles are possibly their lowest ebb in history, and a game against the Warriors next week gives them a chance at turning things around.

Granted, they are playing terribly and their first win looks weeks away, but they must be competitive at the very least next week. They have failed to do that with the exception of a portion against South Sydney this year.

And regardless of next week’s result, the Sea Eagles are clearly destined for a bottom-four finish. The modern game seems to have passed Hasler by, while the club’s list management has been poor to say the least.

It’s time for big changes on the Northern Beaches or 2021 is fast going to become a write-off.