Trent Barrett believes Manly can hold their heads high after golden point loss to Newcastle

MANLY coach Trent Barrett says his team has a lot of work to do but should not be ashamed after suffering a heart breaking golden point loss to Newcastle.

Tom Trbojevic of the Sea Eagles is tackled by Mitchell Pearce during the Round 1 NRL match between the Newcastle Knights and the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles at McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle, Friday, March 9, 2018. (AAP Image/Darren Pateman) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY

MANLY coach Trent Barrett says his team has a lot of work to do but should not be ashamed after suffering a heart breaking golden point loss to Newcastle.

On a night that the home team and its bumper crowd celebrated with pure emotion after three tough years, Barrett was controlled with his emotions post-match.

While he praised his team’s effort and commitment, he said it didn’t excuse a high error rate and lack of completions.

The big question mark coming into the season for Manly was always going to be how they would cope without Blake Green’s composure and kicking.

Manly went down in heartbreaking fashion.

Ball playing lock Jake Trbojevic stepped up to take the pressure off Daly Cherry-Evans while Lachlan Croker had a solid game in his NRL club debut for the Sea Eagles.

While Newcastle completed at 84 per cent, Manly’s was way down at 67 per cent.

The match finished at three tries apiece and while Manly looked to be travelling best in the second half they just couldn’t close out the match.

“It was an extremely courageous effort from our blokes and I am very proud,” Barrett said.

“We didn’t give ourselves a big chance to win the game but we were still in it.

“I think we were 67 per cent completions and 17 errors which makes it very hard.

“I can take a lot out of that knowing I’ve got a footy team who is going to rip in for each other and not give up.

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“But we need to fix a few things with our ball control.

“I am not walking out of here ashamed.

“Definitely not.

“We will go back to Sydney next week and get a full house at Lottoland (against Parramatta on Sunday).

“We could have easily won that game but just the luck of golden point”

Barrett was more than happy with Croker’s effort.

“I thought he was good, particularly defensively,” Barrett said.

“He is a tough little bugger.

“I thought he answered a lot of questions, well, I didn’t have on him but other people did.”

Originally published as Trent Barrett believes Manly can hold their heads high after golden point loss to Newcastle