Anthony Seibold addresses Daly Cherry-Evans elephant in the room after huge defeat

Anthony Seibold has opened up about the impact the Daly Cherry-Evans saga is having on the side after a horror loss to the Storm.

Anthony Seibold responded to suggestions the circus surrounding Daly Cherry-Evans’ contract saga has affected Manly after they were blown away by the Storm 48-24.

The club has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons over Cherry-Evans’ decision to leave the club at the end of the season, which has taken the focus off the players and the team as a whole.

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However, Seibold believes it hasn’t affected his side’s preparation despite the heavy loss to the Storm.

“I’ll answer, we’ve had two really good preparations,” Seibold said.

“I thought we played really well against Parramatta last week. You saw what they did to the Dragons yesterday, who beat the Storm the week before.

“It’s a really tough competition, but I felt as though we had a really good preparation. We trained really well on Thursday, but sometimes you’re outplayed. Sometimes teams are better on the day than you are and that’s what I felt like today.”

Manly did well to fight back to 18-10 after conceding three early tries, but Seibold conceded they just let Melbourne score too many tries in a row.

“I think the game was won probably in two blocks,” Seibold said.

“I think they scored three tries in consecutive sets in the first half and then three tries in consecutive sets in the second half.

“Inside of those six sets we either gave them field position through a penalty or fundamentals and they’re a very good side, so they made us pay.

Anthony Seibold and Daly Cherry-Evans.

“It’s disappointing because I have got higher expectations than what we showed today.”

Seibold believes his side created enough opportunities to beat the Storm, but their defence and errors proved costly.

“You give them field position, they’re asking a heap of questions aren’t they?” Seibold said. “I think they scored off the back of two or three play-the-ball fundamental errors, we give them field position and they were really good. They were converting field position into points.

“I thought we kept fighting. It could have got really ugly there at one stage. We kept fighting and strangely, it was nine linebreaks each. We made nine linebreaks. They made nine linebreaks. They were able to convert theirs a bit better than ours.

“But ultimately we lost the physical battle there. I thought they won that middle part of the field so that’s where they beat us.”

Cherry-Evans didn’t answer questions about the effect of his own contract saga, but conceded his side were disappointing in a big game at home against their arch rivals.

“I think Siebs summed it up pretty well, mate,” Cherry-Evans said.

Daly Cherry-Evans watches on as a penalty is given to the Storm. (Photo by Jeremy Ng/Getty Images)

“There’s a lot to our game that we have to go and own and review and ultimately, when you don’t execute, you don’t win the physical battle and you play a benchmark side, you get 40 points put on you.

“So, really disappointing day overall, especially where we played today. We’d like to have a bit more pride in our performance, but we were off and they were fantastic, and that’s footy, you don’t get the result.”

Seibold believes the Storm are a benchmark team, but feels his side could have given a better account of themselves.

“We haven’t played everybody, but certainly they’re very good,” Seibold said.

“Their spine connected really well. Their the middle forwards did a really good job. I thought their edge back-rowers. They’ve got a good team there. It’s the team that made the grand final. I thought Stefano was very good for them tonight as well.

“They’re one of the benchmark teams, if not the benchmark team, but they were too good for us tonight.”

It doesn’t get any easier for the Sea Eagles, who fly to Perth on Monday to take on the Sharks next Saturday and Seibold conceded injuries wouldn’t help their preparations for Round 6.

Originally published as Anthony Seibold addresses Daly Cherry-Evans elephant in the room after huge defeat