Manly’s fatal flaw has been exposed following their 38-32 loss to the Titans; their fourth loss in their last five games and third consecutive defeat.

The Fozball honeymoon is well and truly over as rookie coach Kieran Foran faces his toughest challenge; halting the Sea Eagles slide down the ladder, and that starts by fixing their poor discipline with the ball.

In the Sea Eagles last three games, they have committed 44 errors and conceded 87 points; a stark contrast to the start of the Fozball era where they were conceding, on average, under 12 points a game before their Round 15 bye.

Manly now sit outside the top eight, two points behind the Rabbitohs and Cowboys in seventh and eighth, and if they are to book their place in September, reducing their errors must be their first task, per Samoa head coach Ben Gardiner.

“First of all, they played golden point last week which challenges any team the following week… and then go up to the Gold Coast where it's humid, it's hotter,” Gardiner told SEN 1170 Mornings.

“The big one for me for the Sea Eagles at the moment is the error count.

“In the last few games, I think they've had 16, 17, and 11 errors, which is nothing like what they were having when Foz (Foran) took over.

“They've got the Fozball style and they know they can move the ball. Now, opposition teams are opening up and giving themselves some more space through the middle.

“I reckon they just need to focus on getting over the advantage line, picking up their support, getting through the middle, getting to their kick, which is the basics of rugby league, and they need to strip their error count back to less than 10 to be able to compete with that style of footy as the year goes along.”

The task of turning around Manly’s fortunes is the biggest task of Foran’s young coaching career, having only retired at the end of the 2025 season.

The job will only get tougher, with Tom Trbojevic expected to spend time on the sideline with a ninth hamstring injury in eight years, though there are hopes from Manly officials the injury is not as severe as initially feared.

Despite the issues, Gardiner is confident Foran can withstand the pressure, encouraging the rookie coach to go back-to-basics in his approach this week.

“That's the biggest challenge, the pressure that you put on yourself because you have a great start to your coaching career, and then all of a sudden the expectation is that you're winning and everyone's talking about it,” Gardiner said.

“You got your face up on the KFC, you've got Fozball Hill.

“Everyone's really stoked and into the action that you're bringing to the team and then now things are starting to go bad.

“So for me, my advice would always be to go back to what you believe in and if you go back to what you believe in and what's worked for you.”

The Sea Eagles take on the Cronulla Sharks on Sunday at 4 Pines Park.