Warriors coach Nathan Brown has conceded the club has had to iron out some internal issues in recent weeks but doesn't believe the off-field dramas are part of their midseason slump.
Brown spoke to media on Wednesday following their 16-24 loss to the Knights on Saturday - their fourth-straight defeat and leaving them one-from-seven in their last seven outings.
The loss came after turbulent week for the club last week in which it was reported departed front rower Matt Lodge received a $700,000 "golden handshake" as part of his midseason exit.
Brown admitted that report had an effect on the team.
“I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t some little issues there for a period of time, but once it was all settled and solved, I think the team has been very unified the past two weeks,” Brown said.
“We’ve shown with parts of our performances that it hasn’t played a part in us losing, we’ve addressed some issues and moved forward.
“But when those things are happening behind the scenes, there is always bits of trouble going on and bits that don’t help the team.
“But once it got addressed, Matt moved on and we moved on, we’ve made some progress and I don’t think it’s any reason why we haven’t won our last two games.”
Team morale appeared to take another hit after Saturday's loss to the Knights when forward Jazz Tevaga gave a brutally honest interview, naming teammates who had made costly individual errors in the game along with the brutal analysis that the side had "more jerseys than trophies".
Brown said he didn't believe Tevaga was playing the blame game in the interview and in fact had the playing form to be justifiably challenging teammates.
“Jazz is in career best form, he’s a far better player than what he was 12 months ago and he’s doing things on the field which are certainly helping the team move forward,” Brown said.
“Jazz is earning the right to challenge people to do the right thing.
“Jazz certainly isn’t a finger pointer, he understands that there are some people putting in a lot of hard work and doing the right thing and if we get everyone doing the right thing, we can get the scoreboard to work in our favour.”
The Warriors have welcomed back Wayde Egan and Bayley Sironen for Saturday's match against the Sea Eagles with Egan rushed straight back into the starting lineup at No.9 while Sironen has been named on the bench.
An injury to Viliami Vailea has opened the door for Rocco Berry to start too.
Both sides enter the game on losing streaks with Manly winless in their last three outings and just one place and two points ahead of the Warriors on the NRL table.
Warriors v Sea Eagles, 9:45pm NZT, Saturday June 4
1. Reece Walsh, 2. Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, 3. Rocco Berry, 4. Adam Pompey, 5. Marcelo Montoya, 6. Chanel Harris-Tavita, 7. Shaun Johnson, 8. Ben Murdoch-Masila, 9. Wayde Egan, 10. Jazz Tevaga, 11. Euan Aitken, 12. Tohu Harris, 13. Jack Murchie
Extended Bench: 14. Taniela Otukolo, 15. Aaron Pene, 16. Bunty Afoa, 17. Bayley Sironen, 18. Freddy Lussick, 20. Dunamis Lui, 21. Eliesa Katoa, 22. Daejarn Asi, 23. Jesse Arthars
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