‘Not the end of the world’: Manly Sea Eagles remain confident despite slow start to NRL season

The Manly Sea Eagles are sitting on the bottom of the ladder, but Daly Cherry-Evans’ faith in his side remains intact.

The Sea Eagles haven’t started the season as they’d hoped. Picture: Mark Evans/Getty Images

Captain Daly Cherry-Evans insists “it’s not the end of the world” that pre-season fancies the Manly Sea Eagles are sitting on the bottom of the ladder two weeks into the 2022 season.

One of last year’s most exciting attacking teams, the Sea Eagles’ quest to hoist the premiership trophy aloft has started slowly.

Manly was taken to the cleaners by defending premiers Penrith in the first match of the season and went down to fellow heavyweights the Sydney Roosters last weekend.

The two decisive losses have left Manly as one of only four sides yet to taste victory in 2022.

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But Cherry-Evans says the Sea Eagles won’t be giving up the faith just yet, having come back from a 0-4 start to book a spot in the top four last season.

“It’s not the start we wanted when it comes to defending. Our attack is building slowly, but I believe that it’s only a matter of time before it fully clicks into gear,” Cherry-Evans said.

“We can lean on (last year’s experience) to know that it’s not the end of the world.

“We are hoping that we don’t wait five weeks to get our first win this year, but that period of last year does help us understand the reality that we can still make finals and all that sort of thing.

“We’re two weeks into a 25-week season. There’s still a long time to go.”

The Sea Eagles have been humbled by the Panthers and Roosters in their first two games of the year. Picture: Mark Evans/Getty Images

Cherry-Evans said the Sea Eagles could take confidence from the second half of last week’s loss.

After going into the sheds 22-0 down, Manly wrangled back the ascendancy to outscore the Roosters in the second stanza.

“That second half, I saw a lot to like about where we’re at,” he said.

“Those first three halves we played were pretty disappointing for our standards, but I really felt like walking off last weekend that that last 40 minutes was a bit of a blueprint as to how we can move forward.”

Cherry-Evans said he had faith the Sea Eagles could get their season back on track against the new-look Bulldogs in what will be Manly’s first game at Brookvale Oval since July.

“There’s not a game I’ve gone into where I didn’t think we could win. This week’s no different,” he said.

“There’s a lot of motivation to play well this weekend at 4 Pines Park.”

The game will also be Trent Barrett’s first coaching against the Sea Eagles at 4 Pines Park since leaving the club.

Prior to coaching the Bulldogs, Barrett was in the hot seat at Manly between 2016 and 2018, and in his last season, the side finished lower on the ladder than ever before.

Cherry-Evans expected the Manly home crowd would do its utmost to get under Barrett’s skin on his return to the northern beaches.

“Like most crowds when you come back to your old club, it’ll be hostile but (Barrett) is a good fella and I’m sure he’ll take it in his stride,” said Cherry-Evans.

“‘Baz’ played the game at the highest levels, so he knows exactly what it’s all about, the rivalry between clubs.

“He won’t take it too personally and it won’t stop him from doing his job this week.”

Daly Cherry-Evans is hoping to rally his troops to victory against the Bulldogs. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Boasting a revamped roster, the Bulldogs have been tipped to improve in Barrett’s second season in charge.

“If we’re going in there with the assumption that they’re the same Bulldogs team from the last few years, we’re going to be in a bit of trouble,” Cherry-Evans said.

“We can see the improvement they’ve shown. They’re a well-coached side and they’ve got a lot of good players. We can’t underestimate them.”

Originally published as ‘Not the end of the world’: Manly Sea Eagles remain confident despite slow start to NRL season