Manly skipper Jamie Lyon is in doubt for the NRL season start after injuring his knee in the Sea Eagles’ 36-6 trial loss to Sydney Roosters.
Manly opened the scoring in the 10th minute with a Peta Hiku try, but the Roosters dominated the majority of Saturday night’s contest to reaffirm their status as one of the teams to beat this season.
But of greater concern to Manly is the injury to Lyon, who didn’t return to the game after the halftime break.
Tom Symonds will also go for scans on Monday after injuring his left elbow.
With the loss of experience at Brookvale, including Anthony Watmough, Glenn Stewart and Jason King, Manly can ill afford another experienced campaigner on the sidelines.
Before around 3500 fans at Central Coast Stadium, the Roosters laid on 30 unanswered points after Manly’s opener, looking stronger up front and slicker out wide.
Newly installed captain Mitchell Pearce took on the Sea Eagles’ line to open the tricolours’ account in the 28th minute, before some clever work from Mitch Aubusson at dummy-half put prop Kane Evans over just before halftime for a 12-6 lead at the break.
James Maloney created numbers of the left for Daniel Tupou to score out wide in the 43rd minute before the NSW winger raced 80m for his second in the 52nd minute.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck scored with some trademark footwork in the 58th minute before 34-year-old Willie Manu was almost as fleet of foot before he put Dylan Napa over with 10 minutes to go.
Manly’s in-demand halves Daly Cherry-Evans and Kieran Foran were outpointed by their Roosters’ counterparts Pearce and Maloney before DCE and Pearce were spelled in the 60th minute.
Up front, the Roosters had the better of things against a Manly pace expected to struggle in 2015.
Willie Mason was solid early for the Sea Eagles, but will need to put in more minutes throughout the season to keep Manly competitive.
Blake Ferguson looked rusty and was kept quiet in his first top-grade hitout in 21 months.
Watched on by mentor Anthony Mundine, Ferguson spilt an intercept that would have almost certainly resulted in a try from his first touch but did work his way into the game as it progressed.
Hiku was Manly’s best.
