DCE vows to atone for poor game against Wests Tigers

Nothing better than a cranky captain.

And when the Sea Eagles host the Roosters on Sunday, they may well cash in on skipper Daly Cherry-Evans beating himself up over a missed tackle, an ineffective kicking game and general ball control in last week's loss to the Tigers.

Lottoland will see a re-committed Cherry-Evans out to make up for what he saw as his failings in round one.

"I certainly have to take responsibility for my role in the loss," Cherry-Evans said.

"There's certainly things I'll go away and work on. Missing an important tackle in the game [on Luke Garner 57th minute] was something that let our side down. But also with the ball, end of sets with our kicks can certainly improve.

"It's only round one but there's certainly things to improve. If we can improve quickly that will help us a lot this weekend."

It's an intense first three rounds for Manly. Playing the Tigers at Leichhardt is a tough assignment for every team, and now they're preparing to host the premiers before facing the Warriors in Christchurch with all the emotion that will entail.

Before coach Des Hasler and his team blink, they could be 0-3 to start 2019.

"To be honest that pressure is only coming from the media, and that's your job to criticise and analyse all the games of footy," Cherry-Evans said.

"We understand that and respect that's your job but internally we can't be thinking about hypothetical 0-3 starts. That's just wasting time. What we can do is train well and focus on the Roosters this weekend."

Hooker Api Koroisau took his share of the responsibility, even though it was his first NRL match in eight months. He did lead the tackle count for both sides with 52.

"I wasn't in sync with Cherry or Kane Elgey," Koroisau said.

"A lot of work this week will be fixing that problem, and it's pretty easy to fix.

"We did have to defend a lot so when we did have the ball we were under fatigue. So we've got to stick to our structures and keep it simple, whereas we tried to play a little too much footy too early on."

Manly also only had two of its regular spine in action against the Tigers – Cherry-Evans, Koroisau, new No.6 Kane Elgey and new No.1 Brendan Elliott, both arriving from the Titans in the off-season.

"We're not the first new spine in the NRL and I think that showed in a few sides on the weekend," Cherry-Evans said.

"Those combinations with the 9, 7, 6 and 1 do take time. So we'd like it to work sooner rather than later but we're not naïve to understand how difficult it is to get on the same page.

"I'm always my harshest critic. But what's helped my game is understanding what my role was and where I didn't play well.

"As I identified earlier there's a missed tackle there I'm really filthy about and my kicking game was really poor. I'll make sure I improve this weekend."