Manly coach Trent Barrett says rookie five-eighth Lachlan Croker answered his critics in his first NRL game for the club in their golden-point loss to Newcastle.
The 21-year-old had plenty of involvement in his first competitive game for the Sea Eagles in place of the departed Blake Green, as he appeared to strike up a nice combination on the left edge with front-rower Martin Taupau.
He also made a break of his own in Manly's 19-18 loss, but accounted for five of the side's handling errors in a problem that was systematic of the Sea Eagles' attack at McDonald Jones Stadium on Friday.
"I thought he was good, especially defensively," Barrett said.
"He's a tough little bugger. I thought he answered a lot of questions I didn't have on him, but a lot of people did.
"I thought our attack was good. It will evolve over time. It's hard to get any flow in your attack when you're only completing at 67 per cent."
The nephew of Canberra great Jason, Croker made his NRL debut for the Raiders in 2016 but never made a second appearance before moving to Manly in the off-season.
Meanwhile, Barrett was left to rue Manly's poor completions post match, as they coughed up 14 errors, including a crucial Akuila Uate dropped kick in golden point.
It allowed the Knights to claim a repeat set, before Mitchell Pearce sent home his first field goal in Newcastle colours to claim the win.
The Sea Eagles also gifted the Knights a number of piggy-back penalties, rarely making Newcastle work it out of their own end despite winning the forwards battle for the most part.
There were positives, however, for the Sea Eagles.
On return from last year's season-ending knee injury, winger Jorge Taufua got through more than 225 metres and scored the team's opening try.
Youngster Brian Kelly also looked improved again at left centre, Jake Trbojevic offered plenty in attack as he regularly passed before the line and bench forward Kelepi Tanginoa went at more than 11 metres per run after impressing during the off-season.
"We didn't give ourselves a big chance to win the game and we were still in it," Barrett said.
"I can take a lot out of that knowing I've got a footy team that is going to rip in for each other and not give up.
"But we need to fix a few things with our ball control. I think we had two-three tries disallowed or balls dropped over the line, so it could have went either way. We won some of them last year. They're hard to take."
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