Manly Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler has lashed out at his doubters and critics, telling them to "line up" as speculation over his future builds.
The Sea Eagles will miss the finals after a horror run in the last month, although their season never properly got going.
Injuries - particularly one to Tom Trbojevic - didn't help their cause, however, that hasn't stopped the pressure building on Hasler.
The coach reportedly had a clause in his contract with an automatic extension if Manly made the finals, however, with that not occurring and his contract expiring at the end of 2023, speculation over his future has grown.
Former Manly player Max Kilrich joined the list this week, telling News Corp that Hasler had "probably had his time."
Hasler said that wasn't the case though.
"It's just another one - line up," Hasler told reporters on Friday after Manly training ahead of this weekend's clash with the Canberra Raiders.
"Those things will be rolled out, so Max is entitled to his opinion, he's a good fella.
"But 12 months ago, Max was, I'm sure, pretty excited about the way the side was going, where the club was headed.
"I can just let Max know that obviously clubs go through difficult times, so it will come through this okay."
Captain Cherry-Evans himself pointed to injuries as an issue for the Sea Eagles earlier this week.
"Without making excuses, there were 13 (players) on the sidelines, it's been made a bit more difficult from that point of view," he said.
"We've injected some young players to get the taste of experience and they're just working with a few things to gain experience like that this weekend to make sure we can feel solid and competitive."
Hasler has coached over 450 NRL games, with over 300 of them coming in two stints at the Sea Eagles.
