Don't blame it on new guys: Manly coach

Manly coach Trent Barrett refused to blame his club's poor attacking execution on their new NRL combinations, after they fumbled their way to a 20-12 loss to Parramatta.

The Sea Eagles completed just 21 of 31 sets at Lottoland on Sunday, struggling to build momentum as they handed the Eels 62 per cent of possession.

Manly opened the scoring in the sixth minute and finished it in the 77th, but struggled to work their way into Parramatta's half for the 71 minutes in between their tries.

Their only other chance came late in the first half, when Parramatta batted down a ball on the left wing just as Manly looked set to score.

But Barrett said that wasn't a result of the new-look combinations on both their edges.

"They weren't team-related," Barrett said.

"It wasn't as if we were making errors executing plays or anything.

"They were just individual, crappy little errors. In the play the ball, forcing offloads, we just can't make them."

Last year the Sea Eagles slumped to their worst attacking record since the Northern Eagles merger became defunct in 2003 but the Manly coach doesn't believe that will be repeated.

"We can fix that - that's very easy to fix," Barrett said.

"The three times we did get down there we had one knocked down, and we come up with two tries."

And while he also his team's goal-line defence was the best he had seen in a long while, the real bright spark for Manly was 20-year-old rookie centre Brian Kelly.

Brought down from the Gold Coast over the off-season, Steve Matai's replacement at left centre scored off just his second touch in the NRL when he jinked his way to the line from 10 metres out.

"I thought he was outstanding," Barrett said.

"He was good defensively, scored a great try out of nothing and was dangerous every time he touched the ball."