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.

“Manly just doesn’t lose like that, there were quite a few debutants (against Gordon) and some other factors but from what we saw on Saturday the group has learnt well from the experience.

“One of the big lessons was that you can’t just stroll in each week and expect to win in the Shute Shield, it takes a lot of effort and if you are off your game by as little as five percent you’re not in the game.

“It starts on a Monday and you’re got to prep well and be ready to go into the battle on Saturday.

“Round One brought us together a lot together as a group – we had to do some soul searching as individuals and as a group and we bonded well over that.

“The Gordon game was dealt with pretty much by Sunday night so by the time we came in to talk about the Beasties on Monday there was a fresh attitude.

“Essentially the blueprint that we spoke of was to get our defence in order and then see what happens from there.

“Still there’s work to do (having leaked 22 points against Easts) but we are off and running now.”

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Attwater in fact was the first to score with a penalty goal but tries to Mosese Tuipulotu and Nick Jooste kept the home fires burning for the Beasties.

At various stages they led 14-3 and 22-14 but all the while the Marlins were defending strongly and making a contest of things.

Attwater penalty goals edged the Marlins closer to 22-17 and then the late game heroics were played out with fullback Te Raina Richards-Coxhead scoring.

The conversion from Attwater then put Manly ahead for the first time in the match.

Marlins coach Matt McGoldrick was a happy man at the death.

“There was virtually no difference in personnel from the week before but we defended like absolute demons,” McGoldrick said.

“Everything that we did during the summer was there on show at Woollahra and that was heartening to see.

“We know that we had to improve and the pleasing thing was that was what we want out there and did.

“All our worst fears were realised in that game against Gordon and to be honest I think we were probably one trial short (one trial was canned because oil the big wet in Sydney) of having a thorough preparation for the start of the competition.

There were distractions in the lead in to the game with Easts having their annual Ladies Day and the warm up areas were hard to define with the big crowd they had in.

Still a win is a win, is a win and when it comes after a performance like the one the Marlins put in against Gordon in Round One it’s so much sweeter.