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<\/p>\nWinning in Melbourne would suggest Manly have what it takes to qualify for the post-season. The Storm\u2019s previous defeat in their own backyard was almost 12 months ago, against St George Illawarra in round 22 last season, and they had subsequently won 10 in a row at home.<\/p>\n
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Manly coach Anthony Seibold has steered his team to three consecutive wins.Credit: Sam Mooy<\/p>\n
Despite missing the muscle of injured enforcers Haumole Olakau\u2019atu, Josh Aloiai, Taniela Paseka and Nathan Brown, Manly got the better of Melbourne\u2019s imposing pack.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt in round five they really bullied us,\u201d Seibold said. \u201cThey came to Brooky and got stuck into us. We weren\u2019t happy as a group with how we played that particular day, so we wanted to give a good, physical account of ourselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to be the best version of ourselves, and to beat the Storm, you need to be somewhere near that.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there was a real physicality from both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n
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There was no lack of intensity when Manly clashed with Melbourne on Saturday.
\n Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Seibold was confident there was still improvement in his team, who have finished seventh under him in their past two campaigns.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt certainly wasn\u2019t perfect, but it was somewhere near the best of ourselves, particularly defensively,\u201d Seibold said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we scored three tries in a 10-minute period in that first half, and we were really, really good in attack and asked a lot of questions of a really good defensive team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Seibold said the Sea Eagles were considering challenging a concussion ruling that restricted bench hooker Jake Simpkin to six minutes of game time against Melbourne and threatens to rule him out of their clash with Canterbury at Allianz Stadium next Sunday.<\/p>\n
Simpkin was crunched by an elbow to the head from Melbourne\u2019s Nelson Asofa-Solomona, who copped a double-barrelled punishment for his indiscipline – the Storm had a Harry Grant try disallowed, and now Asofa-Solomona is facing a suspension<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was ruled category one from the bunker, but our testing suggested it was category two,\u201d Seibold said of Simpkin.<\/p>\n \u201cJake doesn\u2019t have a mark on his face.<\/p>\n Loading<\/p>\n \u201cObviously Nelson\u2019s a big man, so he copped a fair elbow from Nelson, and he stayed down because of that, but he wasn\u2019t concussed.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we don\u2019t believe it was category one, but we lost him for the night, so we were down to three players on the interchange bench.<\/p>\n \u201cWe might challenge that. Our doc considers it was assessed as category two inside [the dressing room].<\/p>\n \u201cIf that\u2019s the case tomorrow – you have the protocols that the doctor and medical staff need to do – then we might put a case to appeal that was category two, rather than category one.\u201d<\/p>\n Players face a mandatory stand-down period of 11 days after category-one concussions, but they can back up and play in their team\u2019s next game if it is only a category-two incident.<\/p>\n NRL is Live and Free on Channel 9 & 9Now<\/a><\/p>\n