Manly captain Daly Cherry-Evans admits his side started “a bit too crazy” in their 40-16 elimination final loss to the Roosters after losing two players in the opening 23 seconds to head knocks.
In one of the most “surreal” starts to a finals match the Sea Eagles lost centre Tolu Koula and Jake Trbojevic to HIA’s in the first two hit-ups of the game after kicking off to the Roosters.
And while Trbojevic returned after a 15-minute head assessment, Koula was ruled out from the opening tackle and Manly never recovered.
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“It’s not a bad word ‘surreal’. You just don’t ever plan for anything like that,” Cherry-Evans said.
“I thought we did our best considering but ultimately that’s just not the start you need in a semi final game.
“We just tried to calm down. We obviously started with the greatest of intentions and sometimes with that you can get yourself in the wrong spot when you’re going a bit too crazy and a bit too hard.
“Our physicality, our intent was all there to start the game but ultimately we were really unlucky with some head knocks in the first two tackles.
“From there we did try and settle into the game we just weren’t good enough tonight. There’s a lot to be proud of this year and there’s a lot to be proud of tonight but ultimately we just weren’t good enough and that’s disappointing at the moment.”
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The Roosters were in command for the entire match and took a 20-4 lead into the break before kicking on to book their place in next week’s grand final qualifier against the Storm.
Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold said the freakish start caused immeasurable damage to his side’s chances of victory in which they missed 45 tackles.
“It was really tough obviously the start was a little bit surreal in some ways losing Tolu and Jake the first two tackles of the game but they were the cards we were dealt,” he said.
“The guys I thought kept fighting really hard. The Roosters were too good tonight and that was the reality if it and we fought hard and tried to stay in that contest.
“But what could go wrong did go wrong tonight.
Seibold content after “improved season” | 05:12
“Jake and Chez are our leaders so to lose one of them. Tolu gained a lot of confidence off the back of his finals performance last week so we lost a bit of strike when he went off.
“I thought Ben Trbojevic when he came on (at centre) did a really good job. He hadn’t trained all week at centre and expected to some on and play back row off the bench so I though he did a really good job.”
Meanwhile, with incumbent Australian halfback Nathan Cleary a chance to miss the end of year Pacific Championships with surgery, Cherry-Evans said he was ready for Kangaroos selection.
“Yeah if I get picked I’d love to. I know where I stand so see what happens in the next couple of weeks,” he said.
“But if I’m picked it would be good.”
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