NRL Preview: Manly v Canberra

Will the famous Sea Eagles ‘siege mentality’ come to light again at Lottoland on Saturday night?

With the club under scrutiny following the NRL Salary Cap determination last Monday on the back of a heavy loss to Souths, the Sea Eagles will come out firing against the Canberra Raiders in round four of the Telstra Premiership.

And is there any club better at thriving off adversity than Manly?

Sea Eagles Coach Trent Barrett said his players were very embarrassed by their performance against the Rabbitohs.

“They’ve fronted up and owned what we tossed up last week. That was a product of all of us last week, and none of us were happy with it,’’ Barrett said.

For Canberra, they head to Lottoland looking for their first win of the season. The Raiders have been unable to close out matches after leading and have lost their first three games by a combined margin of five points.

And as Manly experienced against Souths, a desperate side is a dangerous team.

The Raiders boast a strong forward pack in Shannon Boyd, Josh Papalii and Junior Paulo, and their clash up front with Manly’s Martin Taupau and Addin Fonua-Blake will go a long way to determining the outcome.

New Manly five-eighth Lachlan Croker will be out for a big game against his former club. Croker has been gaining more and more confidence each week playing alongside half-back and captain Daly Cherry-Evans.

Barrett said Croker will definitely start at six after false media reports that had him replaced by hooker Api Koroisau with Jackson Hastings coming off the bench to play at nine.

"Crokes will definitely play (five-eighth) and there has definitely been no contemplation or thought about anything else,'' Barrett said.

Last season, Manly won two thrilling matches in Golden Point against the Raiders, who head to Lottoland with just 10 wins from 27 games played there.

Gates open 5pm.

 HEAD TO HEAD

Played 53, Sea Eagles 32, Raiders 20, drawn 1

AT LOTTOLAND

Played 27, Sea Eagles