Valuable possession lessons learnt from loss

Manly Warringah Sea Eagles Coach Des Hasler said some hard earned lessons around possession is what the team will take from the 28-18 loss to the Melbourne Storm last night.

“We were probably guilty of too much negative play. A lot of unforced errors and probably some discipline too,'' Hasler said.

"I think it was around a 7-0 penalty count and I think we got two in the last 30 seconds. We had about 6-0 or 6-1 in the ruck infringements so we will have to explore that a little bit as well.

"You can’t afford to give that much possession away, that much negative play. The times we did have the ball we looked okay.”

The Sea Eagles fought back from an 8-0 deficit to go into half-time at 8-all before taking a 14-8 lead five minutes into the second half.

A series of vital errors proved costly for the Sea Eagles in the second half that allowed the Storm to level up before taking the two competition points.

Although beaten, the Sea Eagles certainly proved they could match it with the reigning premiers and competition leaders a month out from the finals.

“There are some good signs there. We’ve got a fair idea of what we need to improve,'' Hasler added.

"It’s one thing saying it's a lot of confidence but on the other hand we can't let it become a pattern, not against the good sides like that.

"We just need to even up possession – 26 sets are not going to cut it."

The Sea Eagles will now wait on results of scans on prop Taniela Paseka, who  suffered a syndesmosis injury to his right ankle.