Manly Sea Eagles head coach Anthony Seibold has confirmed his players will be receiving time off for their upcoming bye week after a stint which saw them play 5 games in 25 days.
The Sea Eagles, who started their season with three wins in their first four, went on a run of three straight losses through a chaotic stretch of their schedule, which also included a trip to Perth.
Defeating the Panthers on Saturday night at Parramatta off a longer turnaround, Manly now have their first bye of the season and coach Seibold said time off while the NRL heads to Brisbane for Magic Round would be the order of the day for his troops.
"Time off. I have said this before, where we had 5 games in 25 days, which is very unusual. The boys were really good because they had a long prep this week," Seibold said during the post-match press conference on the bye weekend.
"This has been in our calendar from Day 1, so the guys get a good break this week, and they need it, we need it."
The coach said his side played a strong game, with their leaders stepping up.
"Not so much a monkey off the back, but I was just really proud of the group," Seibold said.
"I thought we played really strongly in the first half, and then momentum was going to turn. It did, and we were able to sort of navigate that and get back on track.
"I thought Chez and Turbo, Jazz Tevaga and Jake Simpkin were very influential tonight, along with some others like Haumole. I'm really proud of the group."
It was Tom Trbojevic's return match, and despite looking to struggle once or twice at the back-end, Seibold said there was never a chance of him being taken off the park for an early shower.
"Really influential. Like I said, Turbo and Chez really led our team exceptionally well. It was great to have him [Trbojevic] back on the park," Seibold said of Trbojevic.
"Not against Penrith. They were still coming at the end. They are a very special team, and we were up by a couple of tries there towards the end, but there was no temptation [to take him off] because they kept coming, and we needed to be really strong with our finish."
Manly, who raced out to an early lead, had to navigate a period where momentum shifted, and captain Daly Cherry-Evans said he was proud of the way his side were able to handle it differently than they had done in recent weeks.
"That's the part I'm most proud of for the team this week. Previous weeks, we haven't handled momentum swings greatly. For us to acknowledge that tonight and somewhat half the momentum to finish the game off, I'm really proud of that," Cherry-Evans said.
