Toovey urges Manly to maintain Storm form

Geoff Toovey has warned his Manly players they’ll need more than the passion and desire shown in the first half of last Saturday’s win over Melbourne if they are to beat Canterbury on Friday.

On an emotion-charged evening at Brookvale Oval, the Sea Eagles came racing out of the blocks against the Storm to lead 24-6 at halftime, before hanging for dear life in the second half to secure a 24-22 victory.

The build-up to that game had been dominated by the decision of Daly Cherry-Evans to leave the club at the end of the year to join the beleaguered Gold Coast Titans.

There had also been question marks about the Sea Eagles’ ability to maintain their status as one of the NRL’s premier clubs with Kieran Foran following Cherry-Evans out of the door to Parramatta in 2016.

Freed from the burden of deciding his future, Cherry-Evans was outstanding in the win over the Storm and Toovey is confident now that the situation involving the star duo has been resolved the club can move forward.

However, he conceded the team cannot compete against a side like the Bulldogs on just emotion with Foran still sidelined due to a hamstring injury sustained in round one.

“We’ve spoken about that and the emotions were high last week and it was a good win,” said Toovey ahead of the Brookvale Oval clash.

“We have to maintain that this week. The Bulldogs are coming off a win and are a big, physical side it’s going to be a close encounter and we’ll need to be good.

“The last time we played there was one point in it and it will be another tight game.”

Foran told his teammates of his decision on Monday morning and Toovey said there’s been no need for any further discussions about the situation with his squad.

“It’s done and dusted, we can all move forward and concentrate of football,” he said.

“I think you saw that last week with Daly Cherry-Evans he had a fantastic game, was back to his best as he was able to concentrate on football.

“Hopefully we can all do that.”

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