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Manly got out of jail against the Tigers but will count the cost after Tom Trbojevic departed early with a suspected groin injury.
At that point they were losing 16-14, but with their main man missing, Jason Saab rose high above Junior Tupou to grab a late try that was, in all frankness, totally undeserved.
Manly will sweat on the fitness of Brad Parker, who left just after the break with a knee issue, and Turbo, who limped off with ten to play. Just like Parramatta on Easter Monday, they can take two points from this and nothing more.
“He’s twinged his groin,” said Anthony Seibold. “He said it felt uncomfortable to run. Obviously he knows his body really well so he said he thought it was best to come off rather than hurt it any further.
“He’s walking around the changing room with an ice pack on but it doesn’t appear to be anything too sinister. He’ll get scanned and we’ll go from there.
“(The medics) didn’t feel as though it was serious. He felt as though he could have kept playing but he could feel it as he ran and he’s being smart about it. We’ll see how it pulls up tomorrow.”
The Tigers are now 0-7 and are left, once again, scratching their heads. Never has the phrase ‘snatching defeat from the jaws of victory’ been so apt: the Tigers had were by far the better team, dominated the metres and the ball and lead late in the game, only to lose.
At this point, fans must wonder where the win is ever going to come from. Twice in a row now, they have been better than teams who will likely be in the finals, but twice have left with nothing.
Tim Sheens had a weekend off to work out the mental weaknesses within the group, but it happened all over again.
“If we weren’t putting an effort in, I’d be disappointed. If we weren’t staying in the game, I’d be disappointed,” said the coach.
“The effort is there but one-off little things are bouncing against us. We’ve got to hang together as a group, stick firm and keep working hard and we’ll get that win.
“There’s an improvement. I’m still happy with the way everyone’s attitude is, but it’s all execution. If the attitude and effort wasn’t there I’d be very disappointed but I’m not outside of the fact that we haven’t won a game.”
With Penrith up next week, things could get very ugly, but Sheens insisted they were going in to compete.
“They don’t get any easier, but there’s no such thing as an easy game in the NRL,” he said.
“We reset ourselves, train hard and expect to win. Be confident to win. You don’t go up there with ‘I hope to win’ in professional sport. We’ll be up there expecting to win and we’ll train accordingly.”
In the grand pantheon, this wasn’t one of the worst Wests Tigers performances. They have been flogged by Manly in the past – last year at Campbelltown, for starters – and were definitely better than that.
But it’s happening too often to be anything other than their own doing. Even when it works, it seems like it works in spite of the attack. They surprised Manly with a runaround in the early stages, then ran it roughly once a set for the rest of the game.
Luke Brooks runs to the line and nobody goes with him. Api Koroisau darts from dummy half then looks around wondering where Nathan Cleary is. David Klemmer frees the arm and finds nobody to pass to.
It’s a side that looks like they think they can’t compete. That isn’t to say that they can’t, but the malaise is as much in their heads as anything else now.
The first ten minutes told the whole story. The Tigers got plenty of possession in Manly’s end, passed it from side to side and tried to put on moves. There were two runarounds that bore more resemblance to oil tankers than rugby league players in their speed.
The Sea Eagles have struggled in their defence application at times but they were far from tested here. Then, when Manly got the ball, they found gaping space, twice, around Asu Kepaoa and took the points effortlessly.
It was a strange old first half: Manly had been largely rubbish, with a rake of errors and as bad a kicking performance from Daly Cherry-Evans as you’ll see. They accumulated no pressure, but didn’t have to. Yet they led 12-6 and, really, had strolled it.
Then, as has been their wont, the Tigers suddenly turned it on.
There were flashes of excellent play, especially from Koroisau and the backrow duo of Isaiah Papali’i and John Bateman. They were the better team. But they lost. Again.
And it was all their own doing. It’s hard to overstate how little Manly offered as an offensive threat, but scored on both of their visits to the Tigers end through eminently preventable tries.
It’s not an overstatement to say that Manly would have lost to most of the NRL given how they played today. In fact, anyone other than the Wests Tigers.
They’ve generally been bright in attack so far in 2023, but today certainly wasn’t the day for that style of game. It took the Sea Eagles until the second half to even attempt wet weather football.
It was something of conundrum: they had clearly been told to play in a less expansive manner, understandably given the rain, but couldn’t get anything going with simple hit ups.
Josh Schuster, who doesn’t really do conservatism, was posted missing for long periods and had eight touches in an hour. Told to play sensibly, it seemed like he decided not to play at all.
When reminded that he was on the field, it was due to him dropping a kick and then missing a tackle from which Starford To’a scored.
There was no urgency, no willingness to build pressure and get into the fight. The Tigers gifted them two tries, they created one themselves and took some penalty goals.
“Although we weren’t at our best tonight, I thought we were really gritty,” said Seibold. “We had no field position and limited possession but we found a way to turn them away.
“They got a couple of tries from some good play and you have to give the Tigers credit, it seemed like we were always coming off our own tryline.
“To get through the other side of that and give ourselves a chance for a big play like that was the most pleasing thing. Sometimes you’re not going to be at your best and you have to defend your line for long periods of time.
“If you can handle that arm wrestle you give yourselves a chance. We gave ourselves a chance and were good enough to get the points.”
All eyes were on the new Tigers fullback, Jahream Bula, who was on NRL debut but carried a huge rep from the junior grades. Immediately, he seemed among the brightest on the ground in black and amber.
In a side that has lacked spark, Bula offered plenty of it with elusive running and buckets of enthusiasm. He wasn’t neglecting the other side of the game either, with a trysaver on Jason Saab and an excellent escape from his in-goal in the second half.
There were inevitable errors, though Tom Trbojevic managed a few of them himself and he goes alright. He missed a chance to get his winger into the corner with a perhaps over-optimistic pass over Saab, but didn’t let it bother him.
Given the hopelessness of the Tigers’ season, it’s well worth looking to young players and seeing if they can take it at this level. On the evidence of game one, Bula certainly can.
“He was very good,” said Sheens. “Him getting out of his in-goal wasn’t easy to do, to beat the people he did. He got to every kick. He’ll be disappointed to put one down but he wasn’t the only one in the conditions. He was very good for his debut and he’ll be there next week.”