Former Manly premiership-winner Glenn Hall has warned his North Queensland teammates that the Sea Eagles will be galvanised by the fallout of the Battle of Brookvale.

Preparing to face Manly in Saturday night's NRL qualifying final at the SFS, Hall knows Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler well enough to expect there'll be no let up from the competition heavyweights despite the recent distractions at the club.

And he says the Cowboys must take on Manly at their own fierce, physical game if they're to spring an upset win and stay in the finals.

Manly will still be without key forwards Glenn Stewart and Darcy Lussick, sitting out three week suspensions stemming from one of the fiercest fights witnessed on a rugby league field since the 1970s.

But they regain star fullback Brett Stewart and five-eighth Kieran Foran from their suspensions to face the Cowboys.

Hall says despite the costly outcome of their brawling win over minor premiers Melbourne in the penultimate round, Hasler will not let his team take the field with anything less than 100 per cent focus.

"The first thing I thought (when I saw the fight) was Dessie wouldn't lose his stuff over it, he would've sat them down and just calmly say `righto, this is what's going on' and just re-direct them," said Hall, who played in Manly's 2008 premiership win.

"And as you saw on the weekend (in a gutsy loss to Brisbane) they didn't come out underdone or not firing, they came out hard and played for 80 minutes.

"They're super competitive, they've kind of built that mentality.

"Everyone knows that from your Manlys and Melbournes and your Broncos now, week in week out that you've got an 80 minute game.

"I think Dessie's got them geared up pretty well and I think what happened the other week and the way the guys approached the game against Brisbane didn't look like it fazed them too much.

"Dessie's obviously sat them down and pointed them in the right direction and they came out ready to rock."

Despite Manly's impressive season, Hall says his former teammates aren't unbeatable.

"The key is just to battle them, just to go at them," he said.

"You have to play just as hard as they are and we've got to prepare ourselves for the 80 minute game.

He acknowledged the Sea Eagles' loss of Stewart and Lussick would help even up the contest.

"But the guys they've still got there - Kitey (prop Brent Kite), George Rose - have been playing awesome even with the loss of those guys.

"But I think we've got a decent pack and we've got a great backline. I think we can really give this game a shake in the semi-finals."

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