Veteran Manly prop Brenton Lawrence has revealed the embarrassing home loss to St George Illawarra in round six was the line-in-the-sand moment for the Sea Eagles in 2017.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The Brookvale outfit has surged to fifth on the NRL ladder since that day, Friday night's 18-14 win in atrocious conditions over Newcastle the fifth victory in six games heading into next weekend's bye.
Two of those wins, including a golden-point thriller against Canberra last week, came without star fullback Tom Trbojevic, who made a successful early return from an ankle injury in the win over the Knights.
Coach Trent Barrett slammed his side's 35-10 loss to the Dragons at Lottoland in round six, labelling it a wake-up call for his side, which has responded in style since.
"That was early in our season and very embarrassing to lose like that at home," Lawrence said.
"We asked a lot of questions of ourselves and that happens. Sometimes you need a good kick up the arse, which we got from St George.
"Momentum is everything in rugby league. When you get it behind you, you want to come home with a wet sail at the end of the season.
"It's just about getting the two points. To be honest, our last two games weren't exactly clinical performances, but they were gritty wins and we came away with the two points, that's what we needed.
"If you can do that and you're thereabouts at the end of the year, you back yourself to be a better team. The big occasion brings out the best in your players and you give yourself every chance to win the comp.
"Every team is playing to win the comp, that's the whole point. We're no different and we believe we can win it."
Manly trailed 8-6 at half-time against the bottom-placed Knights but fought back through Curtis Sironen before a controversial Akuila Uate try secured the win.
Uate knocked on while attempting to ground the football, but the incident wasn't referred to the NRL Bunker, despite the urgings of rookie touch judge Jarrod Cole, and the try stood.
"It was a funny night, things were going against us a lot, whether that was our fault or not," Lawrence said.
"We had so many penalties go against us. The Knights were good, they're unfortunate that they're not getting any wins, it's not through lack of trying.
"I wasn't too concerned about them, just how we went in a game where, to be quite honest, we were expected to win. Last year we might have even lost those games.
"The improvement for us and us going forward is our mentality."
