Given they reached last year's preliminary final after suffering a 52-18 trial loss to Wests Tigers, Manly are acutely aware pre-season results don't count for much.
But Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler was satisfied after giving most of his big names 40 minutes as they turned the tables on the Tigers in Friday night's 28-4 trial drubbing at Leichhardt Oval.
Reigning Dally M Medallist Tom Trbojevic was superb in the first half, having a hand in three tries and making a brilliant break, as was halfback Daly Cherry-Evans, who drilled a 40/20 kick.
"(Trbojevic) has worked hard and the boys have worked hard when they needed to take it to another level, that's what it's all about. It's early days," Hasler said.
"The purpose was to get out there and the first half was tidy enough. Scrappy in parts but the main thing is we got through unscathed, which is good.
"Across the board there were some good performances. Chez (Cherry-Evans) had some nice touches, but it's only 40 minutes so we can't get too carried away.
"We've got a tough first month, so it was good to get a bit of match footy."
As the stars hit the showers, the second half belonged to the up-and-comers especially train-and-trial winger Ray Veaga, who snared a hat-trick.
Highly-rated fullback/centre Tolutau Koula, the 19-year-old renowned for clocking a record 100m track time of 10.58 seconds at the AAGPS Athletics Open Championships in 2019, showed his skill with two try assists.
"The boys really appreciated (being able to) get out there and play," Hasler said.
"Particularly that second half, a lot of those boys haven't played footy consistently for 18-24 months (due to COVID-19), so it was good for them."
Hasler, however, suggested the match-starved youngsters will need to bide their time before an NRL call-up.
"You never know, there could be an injury," he said.
"Or particularly we saw Canberra (experience) COVID rear its ugly head for the first time (of the year)," he added in reference to Sam Williams missing the earlier trial after a positive rapid antigen test.
