Manly centre Tolu Koula says his team must consider the stress levels of Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold after their recent nerve-shredding form in the fight for an NRL finals spot.
The Sea Eagles have ridden their luck over the last fortnight, nearly getting run down by Cronulla and St George Illawarra in successive games.
After flirting with disaster, Manly won both matches and now sit a point outside the top eight ahead of Thursday’s trip to the SCG to face the struggling Sydney Roosters.
Tonga international Koula said Manly would like to put Seibold more at ease and ensure the coach does not have to take a weekly white-knuckle ride whenever he watches his side play.
“We don’t make it easy,” Koula told AAP.
“We are always giving our fans heart attacks.
“That would be a real improvement for us as a team, to stay composed throughout the 80 minutes.
“Hopefully we can cut that out and save Seibs and our fans those heart attacks.”
Workaholic prop Jake Trbojevic said it frustrated him the Sea Eagles had developed a habit of letting their opponents back into contests.
“At least we’re getting the results,” Trbojevic said.
“It's annoying sometimes when it gets that close when it shouldn’t.”
Manly’s upturn in form - they have won three of their last four matches - is all the more impressive considering they are without forwards Josh Aloiai and Taniela Paseka, along with Trbojevic’s brother Tom, who is sidelined for the rest of the year.
For years Manly have been criticised as a team that was overly reliant on Tom Trbojevic’s game-breaking exploits but brother Jake said the Sea Eagles had enough about them to finish the year strongly.
“We’ve had some really good patches this year,” Jake said.
“Not everything has been perfect but there’s a lot of positives.
“There is a lot we can improve on but you can see the potential we have.”
