Manly enforcer Taniela Paseka says last Friday’s loss to the Melbourne Storm was a “wake up call”, adding that the heavy defeat would serve as a learning experience for the rest of the finals series.
Manly had gone into the finals full of confidence, but were belted by the minor premiers, 40-12 – and the forward said the sheds after the game were silent as the players tried to process what had happened.
“It was very quiet, no one really spoke. We were very disappointed, I was very disappointed. I felt, and we felt, like we let the jersey down,” he said.
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“It’s never easy, especially the amount of points they put on us … it wasn’t nice.
“To re-live that [during review], it wasn’t a good feeling. But it was good so that we don’t let it happen again, and that we learn off it.”
Captain Daly Cherry-Evans said that “Melbourne certainly showed us there’s still a lot more hard work to be done,” and agreed that it had been a wake-up call.
“We got a massive lesson from the Storm on how to play finals footy, and they did an outstanding job on Friday night,” he said.
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“Plenty to learn from, but it’s hard not to just re-focus and get motivated to play this week.”
Despite the loss, Manly go into Friday’s clash with the Roosters as heavy favourites.
“I have faith in this team that we’ll get out of this,” Paseka said.
“Losing also creates character.”
He praised the Roosters forwards as a “great force.”
“They’re very experienced, big forward pack. They’ve been killing it this year, obviously with all the injuries that have been happening in their team they’ve still turned up, and been getting wins,” he said.
“This week we’re focusing hard on their forward pack and doing whatever we can to shut them down and compete with them.”
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