Des Hasler has implored his team to stop relying on Tom Trbojevic to get them out of trouble.
The 2021 season Trbojevic produced was arguably one of the best of all-time. In just 15 games, Trbojevic rose to become the best player in the competition.
The star fullback couldn't take the Sea Eagles past the preliminary finals, but won the Dally M Medal, the Rugby League Players Association award and averaged almost four try involvements per game.
They were numbers which simply have never been seen before.
But that didn't carry across to the season opener for 2022. With the Sea Eagles pinned to their own line more often than they weren't, and the Panthers dominating, Manly struggled to stay in the contest, and nothing Trbojevic could do came close to changing it.
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While Trbojevic got the side out of trouble time and time again in 2021, coach Hasler told the post-game press conference that he doesn't want that to become normal once again in the new season.
“You just can’t keep pointing the finger at Tom and saying they handled Tom,” Hasler said.
“We’ve got to handle our game, we’ve got to promote ourselves better to give us some chance of getting into the game.”
While Ivan Cleary admitted the Panthers did plenty of homework on Trbojevic, and the Manly fullback seemed to be shut down quickly each time he got near the football, it was a performance well short of the standards we have come to expect from the champion number one.
Haslet's response - getting the rest of the team to stand up - will have its first chance to be on display next Friday when the Sea Eagles clash with the Sydney Roosters in Round 2.
