Manly captain Jamie Lyon says his former premiership winning teammate Will Hopoate is still coming to terms with his comeback to rugby league ahead of his return to Brookvale Oval on Sunday.

Hopoate returns to the Sea Eagles’ spiritual home with Parramatta, three years after winning the premiership with the club in 2011, after two years away from the NRL on his Morman mission.

The Eels centre shared the premiership triumph with eight Manly players set to line-up against him in round three.

Lyon was one of those, and the Sea Eagles star says Hopoate is on the improve.

“He is getting better with every game, two years is a long time out,” Lyon said on Thursday.

“He is finding his feet and he is only going to get better.

“I’m not sure what the reception will be like (from the Manly fans) but he won’t be thinking about that when he gets out there. He will be playing footy just like any other week.

“He is definitely a good player, he going to be one we have to watch.

“He has been out of the game, but he has a lot of talent there.”

A below-strength Manly showed their true grit last weekend in their 14-12 win over South Sydney after surrendering their biggest ever lead at Brookvale Oval in their golden points 23-22 round one loss to Melbourne.

Back-to-back wooden spooners Parramatta enjoyed an encouraging opening round 36-16 win over the Warriors before crashing back to earth last week with their biggest ever loss to premiers the Sydney Roosters 56-4.

“Parramatta will probably be a little bit more hungry this week after being done by the Roosters last week,” Lyon said

“They will be fired up, they are going to be hard to beat.

“I think they will be angry after last week and will be coming out ready to play and we have to be ready for that.”