Manly still have their sights on a top-four berth despite flirting with the danger of missing out on the NRL finals entirely.

After losing last week to St George Illawarra, the Sea Eagles will be facing a mini crisis if they fall to the Warriors at Brookvale Oval on Saturday night.

They prefer to see the situation as a glass half full.

"There's three games to go and I think if we win these next three we can get a top-four spot, so we're definitely not giving up on it," said young five-eighth, Kieran Foran.

"We had a good (last) weekend of results and it seems to be working in our favour each week, so we just need to try and win these next three and get that home semi final."

The Sea Eagles have threatened to be a major force this season, but never quite delivered dropped games to Newcastle and the Dragons in recent weeks.

However, a top-four finish and the promise of a home final at fortress Brookvale would provide some much needed steel to their premiership tilt.

Interchange forward Joe Galuvao, who was part of Parramatta's fairytale run through to the grand final last year, denied it was dangerous for Manly to be thinking top four when their ticket to September is yet to be guaranteed.

"We're going to approach this game like we're going to make the top four, we're not doing ourselves justice if we're not trying to reach that," he said.

"It's pretty jam-packed on the table at the moment, but for us we can't really control what other teams do.

"Definitely, momentum is key but in saying that semi final football is a different type of football. Whether you've got momentum or not, you've got to turn up and play semi-final football.

"For us the key this Saturday is to make the top eight first and foremost and then top four."

The Warriors are in sixth spot on 28 points - two ahead of the seventh-placed Sea Eagles - but face a tough finish against Brisbane at home and Parramatta away.

They have lost hooker Ian Henderson with an ankle injury, meaning Aaron Heremaia will start and Alehana Mara will make his NRL debut off the bench.

Ivan Cleary's men got off to a shaky start in last week's win over Newcastle and can't afford to do the same against the clinical Manly.

"We defended well in the early part of the game against Newcastle (but) it did take a fair bit of juice out of us and just puts you under lots more pressure," said Cleary.

"We don't want to be doing that away from home against a side like Manly. If anyone knows how to win a game, it's them.

"It's going to be a hard slog and real battle but I think we're ready to give it a crack."

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