Manly's recruitment, as soon as a fortnight ago, was rank.
What was with swapping the ever-reliable Jamie Buhrer in the middle for the rocks-or-diamonds Akuila Uate on the flank? Curtis Sironen? The curse of the Tiger, potential over-performance. Blake Green can only win when wrapped in the warm bosom of Cooper Cronk.
Now? Crickets...
"Those guys we got here ... they've all got a bit of a point to prove," shrugged coach Trent Barrett, himself croaky after the Sea Eagles stitched up a 79th-minute 18-12 win over the previously unbeaten Roosters at Allianz Stadium on Friday night.
And playing like it too.
"I think Akuila Uate has been one of our most consistent players over the last month," Barrett added. "Siro has been terrific for us. Frank Winterstein has been good for us. There's a lot of unheralded players in our team who not a lot of people sit up and take notice of, but they work bloody hard to put themselves in the position they're in.
"And we have to play as a team to win, we can't rely on individuals. We need to play together and we've done that again."
Barrett has moulded more fibro than silvertail in Manly, rolling the sleeves up to grind down whoever is standing in front of them.
And basically the only recruit who hasn't had a chance to shine was the Rooster-turned-Sea Eagle Jackson Hastings, who didn't lift himself off the bench once but still left his old haunt with a bigger smile than the senior players he supposedly fell out with last year.
After both teams didn't trouble the scorer for near on 50 minutes, it was another relatively-new-to-the-nest enigma in Dylan Walker, who proved the difference with a late double.
He first raced onto a Green grubber – a margin slashed just as quickly as it was established after Mitchell Pearce carried four Sea Eagles over the line to level with 10 minutes left – before a throwback to yesteryear to seal it.
It was left centre Brian Kelly drifting across the field to set up right centre Walker for a 50-metre scamper and a flock of Sea Eagles to rejoice with seconds left.
Who said Walker will be a flash in the pan at State of Origin level?
"Brian's got a real footy brain and he knows the game well," Walker said. "I just pushed up for an effort and he sort of gave the ball to me quite surprisingly. [Centre] is probably my position and I stuck my whole pre-season there and we worked on combos for the whole time. It's where I'm most comfortable."
The Origin hopes of Roosters front-rower Dylan Napa took a blow as the flame-haired Queenslander lasted barely 15 minutes with an ankle sprain, compounded when the medicab was locked off the pitch and unable to cart him up the tunnel.
It will be the first minor headache for Roosters coach Trent Robinson, who faces a testing trip to Brisbane to take on the Broncos on Thursday night.
"There's never an opportune time to lose," Robinson said. "It's disappointing to lose our first game, especially in a game that was there to be taken.
"Manly played extremely well and a player like Dylan Walker snatched the opportunity in the second half to win that game. One team just did a bit more than us to win the game. They capitalised on our errors a bit better than what we did with theirs."
Pearce had a hand in two pivotal field goal misses in the shootout over the final 10 minutes, the first which skewed off his own boot and later when his fingertips deflected a Daly Cherry-Evans effort off target. The referees failed to see the touch and the Roosters had a chance to go downfield and win it.
"They're massive," Barrett said. "He touched it and it went dead. If we lose over that [that's huge]. You get them some weeks, you don't get them other weeks. It worked out well for us tonight."
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