They may have lost Des Hasler and most of their coaching staff in the off-season but new Manly boss Geoff Toovey can be pleased his side haven't lost their trademark character after they came from behind to beat the Wests Tigers on Friday night.
The Sea Eagles trailed the Tigers 8-2 at half-time but came out firing after the break with half-back Daly Cherry-Evans masterminding the victory.
Three tries in the first 19 minutes of the second half swung the momentum in Manly's favour and despite some nervy moments late on the Sea Eagles held on to maintain a perfect start to their premiership defence.
Adding further credence to the Sea Eagles' win against most bookmakers' favourites for this year's title was that they did it without international stars Glenn Stewart and Steve Matai.
"I am very proud of the boys and the way we came out in the second half, it was a very gutsy performance," Toovey said.
"I thought we dominated the first half apart from the score line. A few things went against us ... but I thought we were the better side and were only behind by six points and always knew we could come back."
"Beating the Tigers, who are a very tough team, is great."
"Particularly missing a couple of key personnel, everyone needed to step up and we did that. They are the premiership favourites, but it is Round 2, there's a long way to go."
Manly co-captain Jason King, who got the comeback started with a rare try less than two minutes into the second half, said the side always believed they could turn the game around after the break.
"We still had plenty of confidence it was just a matter of going out and executing," King said.
"I thought the boys responded really well to what Geoff had to say, we had a good chat at half-time and to all the boys credit we went out there and put those things in place."
"We got some momentum right away and that set up our second half."
Tigers coach Tim Sheens rued his side's poor start to the second half, which coincided with an injury to influential back-rower Gareth Ellis (corked thigh) that saw the Englishman take no further part in the game.
While he made no excuses for the loss, Sheens conceded the absence of Ellis had an impact.
"It started poorly for us with Gareth (Ellis) and whilst we reorganised ourselves, all of a sudden we were in quicksand," Sheens said.
"We were just trying to get ourselves going again and eventually we did but we had to chase the score which was too hard."
"It was a very good first half form both teams but our first 15-20 minutes (of the second) was terrible. It was self inflicted a bit with dropped ball, some missed tackles and we didn't complete."
"We were ready to play the second half but losing Gareth and then the dropped ball and we were up against it."
Sheens was hopeful Ellis would be fit for the Tigers' next match but winger Matt Utai will be out for up to six weeks after suffering medial ligament damage to his right knee.