I wish I could give you an answer. An answer to the question every man and his dog is asking about us right now.
But I haven't got one. I'm not sure any of us have.
We were absolutely atrocious against the Gold Coast last weekend. It's one of the lowest feelings I've experienced, sitting in that dressingroom after the loss wondering how we did it to ourselves. Again.
It's on us as players. We all know that. Adz [Adam O'Brien] and the coaching staff aren't to blame. This whole attitude thing is between our ears.
Every so often, we get out there on the field and just sit back and go into our shell. Instead of getting on the front foot straight away and being aggressive and heaping pressure on our opponents, we do exactly the opposite.
It felt like we were under the pump from the kick-off against the Titans. Our mentality, when we are like that, is nothing short of embarrassing. We have obviously talked about it. We have talked a lot about our performance since last Saturday but like they say, talk is cheap.
We can talk ourselves up all we like but it means nothing if you don't action it.
We are still lacking a true identity. What we stand for, what our values are. We know what we'd like to be as a footy team but you have to live that every day and right now, that's just not happening.
Which brings me to the Sharks on Friday night.
We've made some changes and have some players back and anything less than a real positive reaction from everyone won't be good enough.
We need a really big performance at home. Our fans deserve a really big performance from us. We let everybody down last weekend so we need to make amends for that.
On a real positive note, we've got Brayden Musgrove debuting for us this week on the wing against the Sharks.
I'm so happy for Muzzy because I've seen first hand how hard he has worked to make this happen.
He was with the club a few years back when he did his knee and he stepped away before joining Manly last season, only to step away again to come back home before even playing for them.
He ended up playing for Cessnock and for a lot of guys, that could have been the end of his NRL aspirations. But the club gave him another shot and he turned some heads among the coaching staff with his attitude and the way he went about his training during the pre-season. He's a big boy with plenty of skill and I think it's great he's been given a shot.
Obviously, the return of JSaf, Killer [Kurt Mann] and Braddie [Bradman Best] will improve us as a footy team but the real improvement will be measured by our attitude, our desperation and our desire to get our season back on track.
This is a huge game for us.
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