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Des Hasler said he could rattle off a long list of excuses but he won’t go there after Manly’s sixth straight loss only adds fuel to the fire of speculation surrounding his tenure.
Canberra surged into the top eight to strengthen their finals chances romped to a 48-6 rout on Saturday afternoon at GIO Stadium to jump ahead of Brisbane on for and against heading into next week’s final round.
Manly are 11th after plummeting out of playoff contention after seven of their players boycotted a home game against the Roosters – they have not won a match since.
Hasler has one season left on his contract – he could have had a 2024 clause activated if Manly had made the finals – and despite missing several key players to injury, including Tom and Jake Trbojevic and winger Jason Saab, the effort put in at Canberra by the team was slightly above NSW Cup level.
“We’re just not up to it at the moment – parts of the game that build pressure, staying in the game, being patient. From one aspect it’s a good learning curve but it’s a situation that it’s not good being in,” Hasler said.
“It’s not enjoyable, we don’t want to be here long.
“We’ve got players playing out of position, we can have a list of excuses this long but we’re not going to go there.”
If the Raiders win next Sunday against the last-placed Tigers at Leichhardt, they are all but certain to qualify for the post-season unless Brisbane rack up a huge win over the Dragons at Kogarah on Saturday night.
Canberra now enjoy a 43-point differential lead over the Broncos, who have copped successive thumpings at the hands of Melbourne and Parramatta.
(Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
“It was probably our best performance for the longest period,” said Raiders coach Ricky Stuart. “Every individual contributed to that performance, it was a high standard.
“To win at this back end of the season, fighting for a spot in the eight, it’s exactly what we need. Everybody weighing in.
“There was a lot of disruption adn that’s not an excuse. I said it before every season, I don’t want any good luck but I just don’t want any bad luck. It’s very evident how crucial it is when you’re missing one of the fine hookers in the game for a season in Josh Hodgson and then Jamal [Fogarty], our No.1 seven is out for 12 weeks I think it was, it’s massive.
“We had a whole pre-season with those boys and then there was no cohesion coming into game one. A lot of football teams wouldn’t be where they are today if it happened to them. They were very resilient towards the adversity. They’re a tough bunch.”
If you ever wonder why wingers score so many tries, it’s because they’re defended by wingers.
Canberra veteran Jordan Rapana opened the scoring in the fifth minute when he sprinted onto a cut-out pass from Jack Wighton while his opposing winger Christian Tuipulotu came in on the wrong player, stumbled, tumbled and did nothing as his opponent flew past.
Wighton backed up a break from Hudson Young to send Xavier Savage over in the 14th minute and at 10-0 down, alarm bells were ringing in the Sea Eagles’ nest.
Young bagged a four-pointer of his own, the back-rower’s 10th for the year, when he collected a bomb that batted back by Seb Kris and when Tom Starling finished off some clever lead-up work from Rapana and Kris, it was 22-0.
Raiders halfback Jamal Fogarty collected a ricochet from another Wighton kick, it was 28-0 in as many minutes and it should have been 34-0 at the break but for a fumble by Starling with the line wide open after a Fogarty break.
Young rectified that situation when he barged through a flimsy three-man tackle from dummy half before Manly finally registered a try via Ethan Bullemor in the 62nd minute.
“I think if he keeps playing like this, it’s going to be hard to hold him out,” said Stuart when asked about Young’s World Cup chances. “I know Mal [Meninga] is a fan of his but he’s been consistent all season and I am biased but absolutely he should be picked in that squad. He’s just a footy nut. He loves it every day, I’d love nothing more than to see his name read out at the end of the season.”
Canberra kept piling on the points to boost their differential with tries to Albert Hopoate, Kris and Corey Harawira-Naera as the Sea Eagles looked like they gave up.
Yet again, it looked like Manly had no pride in their jersey.