Josh Schuster's Manly teammates are confident that the next time the playmaker is handed the reins when the Sea Eagles stars are again called away on State of Origin duty, he will be better for the experience gained from Sunday's 28-18 loss to the Knights.
In the absence of regular captain and halfback Daly Cherry-Evans and fullback Tom Trbojevic, and partnered in the halves with Cooper Johns then Parramatta recruit Jake Arthur, Schuster had to take on more of a leadership role.
In only his fifth NRL appearance this season and 40th overall, it was a big ask for the Samoan international, but he had his moments.
Looking dangerous with the ball in his hands, Schuster was involved in both of Manly’s first-half tries – first picking off a Kalyn Ponga pass to send Reuben Garrick over before his well-weighted bomb in the 37th minute set up an in-goal scramble for Croker to pounce and give Manly a 14-10 lead heading into half-time.
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“It was difficult for him at times because we didn’t have a lot of possession down their end of the field, which is when he comes alive,” coach Anthony Seibold said.
“There were some things that he can work on, there’s no doubt about that.
“I thought at different times there he looked a little bit unorganised, or we looked a little bit unorganised, at the back end of that, but we’ll have a look at that during the week.”
Seibold will likely face the same selection issues when the Sea Eagles play the Eels before Origin II in Brisbane four days later, but the experience gained against the Knights on Sunday will ease some of the pressure on Manly’s makeshift spine.
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“It will be, because we’ve done it once, haven’t we,” Seibold said. “But it’s not an excuse. For us, we didn’t talk about the missing players during the week.
“We thought we had a great opportunity to come here and put in a good performance, and I thought the effort we showed was outstanding. We just weren’t great, or we weren’t good enough with the detail within our game, so that’s something for us to work on.
“We’ll get a few guys back from injury for our next game [against the Dolphins], which is in about 12 days, and hopefully Tom and Daly get through Origin unscathed and we’ll start to build again.
“I was really proud of the effort, just frustrated with some of our execution and detail.”
Seibold: Harsh but not reason we lost
Hooker Lachlan Croker echoed Seibold’s sentiments, that the Sea Eagles were brave in defeat but did not apply enough polish at the end of their attacking sets consistently enough to trouble Newcastle.
“I think it was pretty visible that it’s not easy, but off the back of that, I think we didn’t really give ourselves a chance because we used a lot of juice defending in that first half especially, then in that second half, we just asked our big boys to do too much,” Croker said.
“So if we get the other side of that right, it makes that look better, and we just compounded it all.
“It was never going to be easy in the first place, but we didn’t make it easy on ourselves.”
Captain Croker delivers for Manly
Garrick said the Sea Eagles would work on their combinations at training in the next few weeks and expected Schuster, Johns and Arthur to all benefit from time spent together.
“It was a new combination for us. You see the best sides have the same sort of spine for a couple of weeks in a row or a couple of months in a row,” Garrick said.
“It was definitely the first time there today, and it wasn’t perfect, and we never thought it was going to be. We had Jake come in just this week, and he’s still learning the playbook, but everyone’s effort was outstanding.
“We just need to gel that spine together, and that’s the hard thing with this period because you chop and change with the Origin boys, the rep boys, in and out, so with our key positions being out, we’ve got to find that connection at training.
“He [Schuster] will definitely grow from this and again, he showed glimpses of his brilliance tonight, and he had to take more of a leadership role out there tonight.
“I thought he did that for a long period of time, he was controlling our kicking game and moving us around the park. But it wasn’t on our halves today – it was on our discipline and our tackle and letting them come down the park too easily.”
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