From www.nrl.com
Manly's grafting NRL win without three of their stars at the Wests Tigers' fortress Leichhardt on Saturday night has the Sea Eagles believing they might have overcome their Achilles heel, a lack of depth.
The 19-8 victory over the fumbling Tigers was typical of the grind retired lock Ben Kennedy brought to the peninsula but was also achieved without captain Matt Orford, Test veteran Steve Menzies and New Zealand international Steve Matai.
The Sea Eagles have bought big over the past few seasons, signing Kennedy, Orford and representative stars Steve Bell, Jamie Lyon and Brent Kite.
But the perception has lingered that the back-up was thin on the ground.
Regular hooker Michael Monaghan, who starred on Saturday night standing in for Orford at halfback, said the win had shown the club's depth, especially in the form of replacement hooker Matt Ballin, who scored the match-clinching try on debut.
"I think the depth we showed tonight, Matt Ballin in his first game I thought was close to our best player, and (that) shows the competition for spots and the depth of the club at the moment," Monaghan said.
"There's still a couple of other guys there who are pushing their claims for a spot in first grade as well so without those big name players it was a real good effort."
Coach Des Hasler was also pleased with Ballin's debut in wet and windy conditions.
"Playing against one of the number ones in (Tigers hooker Robbie) Farah around the rucks, he was very tidy and very strong in his defence," Hasler said.
Hasler added it was a case of the youngsters starting to come good for Manly, who have now won their opening two matches.
"The side's certainly matured a lot in the past 18 months and I think it's starting to show and some of the players are really starting to display that," he said.
Meanwhile, the near full-strength Tigers have been left facing the question which dogged them in 2006 after two losses from two starts: Was the 2005 premiership a fluke?
But coach Tim Sheens said last year's injury crisis at the club meant he had more depth at his disposal in 2007.
"We'll be better because the guys who got 14 games last year who weren't going to get 14 games have got them this year," he said.
"I'm a little stronger in relation to Chris Lawrences and Shannon McDonnells and these sort of kids."
Sheens signalled that there could be changes to his line-up after on Saturday night's inept display with the ball.
"There's plenty of cohesion in defence, they're working all right although we had a couple of small issues that let us down," he said.
"... we can't be continually losing games with poor handling like that."
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