Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold has had a dream start to his tenure on the northern beaches with a Pre-season Challenge win but knows the real test starts in Round 1 against the Bulldogs.
Seibold's men took out the $100,000 competition after a fortnight of accumulating bonus points for scoring five or more tries, creating five or more linebreaks and offloading 10 or more passes during victories over the Rabbitohs and Roosters.
However, more importantly it's allowed the woes of Manly's finish to the 2022 season - both on and off the field - to be put behind them.
"We just wanted to work really hard physically and mentally over the pre-season," Seibold said.
"The most important thing for us has been about building that belonging and togetherness. We spent a lot of time on building those connections and, I suppose, re-igniting the Manly mentality.
"We are right at the very beginning, but we have seen some small signs over the last two weeks that we are heading in an OK direction."
The Sea Eagles face a Bulldogs outfit in Round 1 that will have several fresh faces to the side that beat them 21-20 in the final round of the regular season last year.
Trbojevic and Seibold discuss USA reconditioning stint
Equally, the return of Daly Cherry-Evans from World Cup duties and expected comeback of Tom Trbojevic should add to an attacking formula that has shown good signs without the pair in recent weeks.
"We have looked quite dangerous with the shapes we've thrown and executed," Seibold said.
"We worked really hard on that side of our game and we’ve still got to bring in a couple of quality players.
"The pleasing thing though was defending our errors. We feel we are moving in the right direction but the reality of it is, we need to put in a good performance against the Bulldogs regardless of what we have done in the trials."
Seibold confirmed promising dummy half Gordon Chan Kum Tong, who were among the stars during the trials, will remain a development player in 2023 before transitioning into the top 30 next year.
He added centre Morgan Harper had "a fright" during a routine carry before falling to the ground with a knee injury, and said he had avoided any serious damage.
Harper was mentioned early last week in a report he was being linked to the Eels in a swap-deal with Parramatta's Nathan Brown, but Seibold also knocked back those suggestions.
"There's truth to the request but it was from Parra's end. There's no truth to it happening," Seibold said.
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