By MARK CASHMAN

Manly Marlins centre Harley Attwater has spoken of the week of soul searching that led to their shock 24-22 win over Eastern Suburbs at Woollahra Oval on Saturday.

The Marlins recovered from conceding 78 points in their loss to defending premiers Gordon at Manly Oval in Round One to knock over one of the Shute Shield’s big dogs at a ground that Manly haven’t won at for close to a decade.

The loss to Gordon hurt the Manly faithful to the core and there was the usual search for answers going on up and down The Corso, but Attwater said the ability to maintain the faith was critical to the turnaround.

“After the loss to Gordon there were a few bruised egos but we were able to focus on ourselves and then were lucky enough to get the chocolates in the end,” Attwater told Rugby News.