COACH Anthony Seibold has commented on his future at the club after a third consecutive home loss to open the season.
The Sea Eagles scored in the opening seconds against Sydney Roosters but were over-run by three consecutive second half tries to leave them winless, 33-16
“I can’t control that decision – only Scott (Penn) and the ownership group can control that,” said Seibold, who is contracted until the end of next year.
“So there’s no point me wasting any energy or time on that.
“I think I’ve invested a lot of time in the club over the last three and a bit years and made a lot of sacrifice with my time but if I’m not the right person I’m sure Scott will tell me.
“I still believe we can do something together as a group so I haven’t put any thought into it.
“I’m three games into a two-year extension so yeah, it hasn’t sort of been a focus for me.
“What do you want me to do? I turn up, work hard for the group.
“If we didn’t have any fight in us we would have got towelled up with those stats – not getting a penalty … I haven’t seen a team have 53 sets, that I’ve coached.”
Monsoon conditions, a touchdown in the opening seconds and a penalty try – the opening match of the NRL’s round four had it all.
But while Manly captain Tom Trbojevic scored on only the second tackle of the match in a movement that covered 90 metres, Sydney Roosters laughed last.
One of those three consecutive tries was winger Daniel Tupou being ruled to have been illegally obstructed by Reuben Garrick after piloting a grubber kick into the south-east corner of 4 Pines Park.
Fullback Trbojevic posted his second try with 15 minutes to go but it was too late for the Sea Eagles,
Before kick-off, there were doubts the match would go ahead with a fierce electrical storm blanketing Brookvale. It was hardly the welcome Sea Eagles stalwart Daly Cherry-Evans would have hoped for in his first game back there as an opposition player.
Manly winger Jason Saab – who made the break for that try after a few seconds – finished the game in the sin bin for a high shot on Hugo Savala, while Sam Walker booted a long-distance field goal in the dying seconds..
“If you compare it to our game against the Knights, it’s chalk and cheese,” said Seibold. “There was a tonne of effort.
“But the scoreboard is what we’ll be judged on. We lost so everyone will make comment around that.”
Tom Trbojevic described the game as “a step in the right direction”. Asked if he was surprised about the crowd jeering Cherry-Evans, he said: “I was a little bit surprised but if they want to boo him, they can boo him.”
Ethan Bullemor pulled out during the warm-up with an Achilles injury.
SYDNEY ROOSTERS 33 (Nawaqanitawase 2 Toia 2 Watson Tupou tries Walker 4 goals field goal) beat MANLY 16 (Trbojevic 2 Koula tries Fogarty 2 goals) at 4 Pines Park.
Teams:
MANLY: Tom Trbojevic (c); Jason Saab, Tolutau Koula, Reuben Garrick, Lehi Hopoate; Luke Brooks, Jamal Fogarty; Taniela Paseka, Brandon Wakeham, Kobe Hetherington, Haumole Olakau’ato, Ben Trbojevic, Jake Trbojevic. Res: Jake Simpkin, Corey Waddell, Ethan Bullemor, Paul Bryan, Simione Laiafi, Josh Feladi.
ROOSTERS: James Tedesco (c); Daniel Tupou, Billy Smith, Robert Toia, Mark Nawaqanitawase; Daly Cherry-Evans, Sam Walker; Naufahu White, Reece Robson, Lindsay Collins, Angus Crichton, Siua Wong, Egan Butcher. Res: Connor Watson, Nat Butcher, Salesi Foketi, Hugo Savala.
Referee: Wyatt Raymond.
