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First Grade
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Manly coach Des Hasler admits his side has been forced to do "a bit of soul searching" this week after slumping to back-to-back losses and losing touch with a NRL minor premiership.
Hasler was so infuriated with the Sea Eagles' poor discipline and basic errors in Sunday's 26-22 loss to St George Illawarra that he made them sit through an extended video session highlighting every single mistake.
Captain Matt Orford denied it was a "shaming session" but did agree that the public humiliation of mistakes being put in the spotlight in front of teammates was the remedy Manly need to blast away any midseason complacency.
"Even as harsh as the video was to watch all the mistakes and how we played, I think there was positives there that when we want to play football and do hold onto the ball we can score points," said Orford.
"(It was) not a shaming session, it was just accountability.
"Stick your hand up and know that you're responsible out there for your actions.
"We've got to get back to the way we started the year and the intensity was mentioned about 100 times in our video session this morning.
"(Hasler) made it very clear that everybody has got a job to do and if one bloke is letting the team down we're all going to pay for it.
"There might have been a small case of `oh we're sitting okay' and you get comfortable but Des reinforced that no-one as a fulltime first grader has their spot guaranteed.
"I think we've got a long way to go (to improve as a football team) and that's a good thing."
Hasler said there was nothing out of the ordinary about Tuesday's session, but admits Manly do need to make some adjustments if they are to bridge the four-point gap Melbourne now hold on top of the NRL ladder.
He denied media reports which suggested the wheels were falling off the Manly bandwagon and said the players could easily "self correct" their past two losses with a win at Brookvale against the Sydney Roosters on Saturday.
"No, that's what the journos get paid to do, make it colourful and dress it up," said Hasler.
"(Today) was just a bit of soul searching as you normally do.
"It's not panic stations but it's something we've got to address.
"We know we can and are quite capable.
"In the Dragons game they never came through our middle. They scored an intercept try and a try from a bomb so if you look back all tries were directly related to our discipline.
"It's not beyond us correcting it and we'll do that."
NSW centre Jamie Lyon remains a chance of playing on the weekend despite pulling out of Wednesday night's State of Origin clash with a hamstring strain.
Lyon would not talk to the media on Tuesday, but proved he could be a late inclusion after running laps at Narrabeen.
© 2007 AAP
