As a Manly fan the whole Anthony Seibold era has been forgettable. Now it's time to bring it to an end

Over the last few years the only good thing about being a Manly fan has been sunny afternoons on the hill at Brookvale Oval.

Even that joy was sucked out of the place almost from the kick off on Sunday, with Luke Brooks making a schoolboy error that led to a Newcastle try from the first set of the game.

The Brooks moment - letting the kick off bounce over the dead ball line in blustery conditions - was a harbinger for the 79 minutes that followed, with the second half against an average side with $2.7 million of its salary cap in the sheds a particularly soulless effort from a team that lacks energy, spirit, cohesion, perhaps even will.

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It's been this way for much of Seibold's time in charge.

The 51-year-old who was run out of Brisbane after a farcical stint at the Broncos has always seemed a peculiar fit on Sydney's northern beaches and, despite a roster with more than its share of top end talent, the best the Sea Eagles have ever looked during his three-year tenure has been a potential fringe finals team.

In Sunday's performance they looked every inch a wooden spoon contender and that simply won't cut the mustard for a proud club that has never finished last.

As a Manly fan I'm in chat groups and on social media pages dedicated to talking about our beloved Sea Eagles. The aftermath to Sunday's shocker was telling.

Apart from Brooks, who has become a lightning rod for criticism after Manly losses, the anger was almost entirely directed at Seibold.

No longer is the fanbase divided about Seibold - almost exclusively, those who spend their hard earned supporting the club want him gone.

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Perhaps the biggest reason for this is the way the Sea Eagles defend. Seibold pointed to this in his post match press conference, when he said: "We didn't give ourselves a chance execution-wise and we missed the mark with our contact and the physical part of it today. No one ever means to make an error, right? But our ability to then show resolve off the back of that is what we're searching for."

Even in the first minute of the game, well and truly before fatigue had become a factor, the Sea Eagles were unable to defend an error. Their right edge got pulled apart the first time it was challenged.

Manly's players don't seem to trust each other to perform their role and easy overlaps are created because the outside man too often bites in, attempting to solve his teammate's problem for him.

The only reason the Panthers and the Storm boast such a difficult defensive line to breach is that every individual knows their role and they trust each other to fill it. You can talk about systems until you're blue in the face, but at its essence defence is about covering your man and believing that your teammates inside and outside you will cover theirs. That belief or otherwise is down to coaching and repetition and under Seibold Manly's defensive line has never felt resilient.

Coughing up 65 points in two games is a huge concern but it also isn't particularly surprising. Perhaps more alarming is that with one of the most lethal backlines in the competition - a line-up boasting the electric Tolu Koula, a fit and healthy looking Tom Trbojevic, flying winger Jason Saab and the classy Lehi Hopoate - the Sea Eagles could conjure just one second half try at home, with the wind at their backs and against a reshuffled side without Kalyn Ponga or Dylan Brown.

A moment late in the game where Reuben Garrick made a break and was brought down by the cover defence became the farcical exclamation point on a dismal performance when he played the ball to no one after Saab had run past him and with no other teammates in the picture.

Could you see a moment like that happening to any side that is well coached? It's hard to imagine and that's because those teams have standards that involve a base level of effort. They do the one percenters from kick chase to support play even when a game is already wrapped up on the scoreboard.

It's not Seibold's job to do the one percenters but if his players aren't going to do it for him it's time to find someone they want to play for.

Sacking a coach after two rounds is the kind of extreme measure that shouldn't be encouraged and it won't happen because owner Scott Penn decided last season that Seibold was worth persevering with. Changing his mind so quickly would be an admission that he got it wrong and an invitation for the fans to turn their anger back towards him again.

Perhaps the bye has come at a good time. But if Seibold can't inspire a significant attitude adjustment over the next 10 days, Daly Cherry-Evans is every chance of riding roughshod over his old team at Brookvale next Thursday night. If that happens the fans might burn the place down.