Kieran Foran has vowed Manly's finals hopes remain alive despite the Sea Eagles suffering a crushing 48-12 defeat to the Cronulla Sharks on Old Boys Day at 4 Pines Park.
The heavy loss leaves Manly's season hanging by a thread, with the club sitting 10th on the NRL ladder, four competition points outside the top eight heading into next week's bye.
After entering the clash with an opportunity to revive their finals campaign in front of a packed home crowd and a host of club legends, the Sea Eagles instead produced one of their poorest performances of the season.
Cronulla halfback Nicho Hynes orchestrated the dominant victory, crossing for a try while converting all eight of the Sharks' attempts at goal.
Manly's defensive struggles were laid bare, conceding 12 line breaks while managing just one of their own and missing 42 tackles in a one-sided display.
Foran admitted the result fell well short of the standards expected on such an important occasion.
“We were confident heading into this game,” Foran said in his post-game press conference.
“We saw it as a great opportunity to not only put on a great performance on Old Boys Day here in front of our home fans on a Sunday afternoon, but we saw it as an opportunity to get our season back on track, and we just didn't fire a shot.
“It's disappointing. They (the Old Boys) would have really expected a big performance from us today, and I know our guys didn't go out there wanting to put in that sort of performance.
“I know that for sure. I know that they had every intention to go out there and fight their way to a victory and make the Old Boys proud and do their teammates proud, but it just went wrong for us.
“It went horribly wrong on both sides of the ball.”
Despite the disappointing performance, Foran insisted the Sea Eagles' season is far from over.
With five matches remaining after the bye, the veteran playmaker said the break would provide an opportunity to reset before launching one final push for the finals.
“We've got to go away now. We've got the bye, we'll give the boys a few days off to really freshen up and get away and just reset, and then we'll come back in and we'll set some goals on where we want to head for these five remaining games,” Foran added.
“I'll say one thing — we're not done with yet. We know where we want to go and where we want to head this season and we won't be backing down from that.
“We've got to find out where it's going wrong and why it's going wrong and then we've got to fix it. That's my job to work that out and get to the bottom of why we're lacking that cohesion and confidence in our footy at the moment.
“I'll spend some time over the bye figuring that out.
“I know one thing for sure, they've got a great attitude, and they've got a great intent to turn up to training every day and get better and work hard and if we do that then it'll turn.”
The Sea Eagles now face a defining stretch of the season. While the bye offers a chance to regroup, there is little margin for error, with Manly likely needing to win the majority of their remaining five games to force their way back into the top eight and keep their premiership aspirations alive.
