By this stage of the NRL season, memories of earlier games are quickly fading, but Manly's round-one capitulation to the Wests Tigers is still vivid in the recollections of Sea Eagles players.

It was the first Monday-night match of the year and Manly had it all wrapped up at halftime, leading 20-4.

But the Sea Eagles went quiet in the second half, and four tries saw the electric Tigers steal the match from their grasp in the 75th minute.

It was the start of Manly gaining an unwanted reputation as second-half snoozers - one they're desperate to get rid of, with coach Des Hasler still hopeful of a top-four finish.

The sixth-placed Sea Eagles say they've learnt from their mistakes and are keen to get one back on the Tigers at Gosford's Bluetongue Stadium on Sunday.

"You'd hope so wouldn't you? We still did that the first couple of weeks getting out to a big lead and we got run down in the first two games," winger Michael Robertson said.

"It's something we're still working on and hopefully we can get a different result.

"We had a big start and they ran us down so hopefully we can change that result on Sunday."

Robertson says the third-placed Tigers have developed into genuine title contenders.

"You just have to look at where they're sitting on the ladder ... They're above us on the ladder and we're going to have to try and sort that out on the weekend," he said.

"We're playing quite a few teams in the eight over the last seven rounds so they're important games so they don't skip ahead of you or you can get a jump on them."

Five-eighth Kieran Foran is adamant Manly have addressed their second-half slides, but warned the same dangers the Tigers presented in round one will threaten again unless the 2008 premiers get their defence right.

"Just their attacking flair. They can strike from anywhere on the field. They showed that (against the Cowboys)," he said.

"They'll score 10 metres out to 90 metres out, and we just can't clock off for a second.

"Those first couple of games at the beginning of the season, we had trouble closing out the second halves.

"We've just learnt to keep playing footy when we come out after halftime and go on with it.

"You've got to make sure your defence is strong. They've definitely got some attacking flair there with Benji and Farah so I think we've just got to turn up and make sure that we're working hard for each other."

Manly say they gained plenty of confidence by putting a big score on Cronulla last weekend, but know defence will need to be their primary focus against the unpredictable Tigers.

Sea Eagles co-captain Jason King said his side can take their tackling effort in the first half of their last match against the Tigers, as the blueprint for how to topple them this time around.

"The Tigers are really going to test us ... so it's important this week that we do a lot of work on them and try and get rid of those soft tries out of our game," he said.

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