NRL 2021: Manly players give raw and brutal assessment of horror loss to Sydney Roosters

Humiliated Manly players have resorted to the kind of language usually reserved for angry diehard fans in describing their horror first-round showing against the Roosters.

The Sea Eagles were on the receiving end of a cricket score at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Round 1. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Embarrassed. No excuses. S***. Landslide. Stuff up. Mental lapses. Shocked. Disappointing. Annoying.

Rattled. Tough. Dented pride. Kick in the guts. Deflating. Lesson learned. Wasn’t pretty. Hurtful.

Couldn’t stop the bleeding. Terrible. Spanked by 40 points. Put to the sword. Frustrating. Terrible.

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The only way is up for the Sea Eagles.

These aren’t the raw words from hurting Manly fans. Nor are they from Sydney’s brutal media.

This is the response from the Manly players themselves in response to last weekend’s 46-4 opening-round horror showing against the Sydney Roosters.

Still reeling from the rout, the Sea Eagles fronted the media on Monday to offer an unusually blunt assessment of their feeble 42-point loss.

“There was no excuse for Saturday,” forward Curtis Sironen said.

“It’s just tough. It was tough being out there. It was a kick in the guts. You don’t want to get embarrassed like that in round one. There is a bit of pride at stake, straight away.

“Confidence is a little bit rattled, right now it’s not too good. We have to debrief about what happened on the weekend and it’s pretty negative.”

Locked at 4-4 after nine minutes, the Sea Eagles conceded 42 points in 54 minutes to record the worst first-round defeat in their 73-year history.

Curtis Sironen was candid in his assessment of the game.

“We started overplaying our hand, we were making errors,” Sironen said of Manly failing to stem the tide of points and possession against them.

“Our best players were making errors. Everyone had a turn at having a bit of stuff up. With that their confidence skyrocketed and, you saw what it was like, it was just a landslide in the end. We just couldn’t stop the bleeding.

“Trying to stop them was pretty s*** for us. You never want to get beaten like that especially after you have trained so hard and prepared. It’s really deflating. Hopefully we have got that shock out of the way and we have learned a lesson.

“We have to deal with that over the next 48 hours and then come together as a group, the senior players, and get the boys back up. Any game this year, if you don’t turn up, you can get embarrassed.

“But we have a great squad here, players who are world class. We know what we can do and it can definitely be turned around and that’s what we’re here to do.

“Obviously we have a lot of things to look at but we can’t have panic stations after round one either and we can’t be so negative.

“As soon as we win a game – if we beat Souths on Saturday – all this goes away.

It was a game Jake Trbojevic doesn’t want to look at any time soon.

“As soon as something went wrong, we couldn’t hold them out. We couldn’t defend our try line back-to-back. That’s a mental lapse. He (coach Des Hasler) questioned our ‘want’ and attitude. It was just disappointing.”

Teams usually review their previous match in preparation for the following weekend but the Sea Eagles have quashed that idea as they turn their focus on somehow re-establishing lost credibility against South Sydney at Brookvale Oval on Saturday.

“I’m not watching that game again,” Jake Trbojevic said after the Roosters put up a cricket score at the SCG.

“It was embarrassing, a terrible game. After the whole off-season, you’d think you’d be ready.

“You have great expectations so to toss up a performance like that is really disappointing, frustrating. It just hurts. I can’t stop thinking about it.

“We have to turn it around quickly. It’s annoying because it’s round one and you expect to be better. There is a lot of footy left so you can’t dwell on it. To lose by 40, it’s pretty frustrating. To let in 40 points, you’re not turning up.”

Manly missed 40 tackles against the Roosters, equal worst for the round with St George Illawarra in their loss to Cronulla.

The extent of the defeat has heaped more pressure on Des Hasler.

“It was tough to swallow,” Dylan Walker said of the thrashing.

“I watched the game as soon as I got home on Saturday night, it wasn’t pretty.

We dipped our toe in but didn’t physically match the Roosters.

“When you’re being spanked by 40 points, it’s never a good feeling.

“The Roosters are a great side and they put us to the sword. We played poorly but can’t lose confidence yet.

“It was terrible how we played. All we can do is get better, work hard and show the younger boys in the squad things can turn around really quickly.”

Originally published as NRL 2021: Manly players give raw and brutal assessment of horror loss to Sydney Roosters