Manly 42 Sydney Roosters 0

There are those who regard the fact that Jamie Lyon plays five-eighth one week and centre the next as evidence Manly haven't got the key No.6 spot adequately covered. So they would be interested to learn that he nearly played halfback against the Sydney Roosters at Brookvale Oval yesterday.

"Ox [halfback Matt Orford] was a bit crook with a virus, so Dessie [coach Des Hasler] threw me in at halfback at training," Lyon said after Manly's 42-0 demolition of the Roosters. "I don't think I've ever played there. Too fat for [number] seven.

"I had a sleepless night on Friday. I told my missus I was a bit worried I might be playing halfback. Ox came good at training yesterday, but I was still a bit worried I might have to play there until he turned up OK today."

Lyon probably would have handled that mission had he been forced to accept it. There's no doubt he handled five-eighth expertly against the Roosters.

Lyon might be a converted No.6, but he does the job pretty well when Hasler hands him the responsibility. Sometimes, Steve Menzies gets the job. He was named at five-eighth for yesterday's game, only for Lyon to start there. Occasionally, Luke Williamson slots in.

The modern game demands adaptability, and while the Sea Eagles might not have a first-grade five-eighth who was bred in the position, Hasler considers he has players who can do the job there. The coach explained that he swaps them around according to the playing style he wants Manly to use and the different challenges presented by the opposition.

"The Roosters are a side you must get good field position against," Hasler said. "They are very good at pressuring the kicker, so I wanted to have Jamie closer to the ball to take a bit of pressure off Ox's kicking game. I wanted to have two good options at the end of our sets. We had to constantly turn them around and I think it all went really well today."

It was another of those games affected by the unavailability of State of Origin players. The Roosters were missing forwards Craig Fitzgibbon, Willie Mason, Anthony Tupou and Nate Myles, while Manly were missing fullback Brett Stewart. The Sea Eagles had three other regular members of their 17-man squad out, while the Roosters had another one.

Ironing out the balance, the Roosters should be disappointed, but not reduced to wrist-slashing. The Sea Eagles are entitled to be delighted, but wary that a full-strength Roosters would provide a much bigger challenge. The bottom line out of yesterday's game was that if you want to beat Manly, you had better come with a bunch of big, tough, experienced forwards who are on their game - that's what the Sea Eagles have got going for them.

The Roosters dropped too much ball yesterday and had to make too many tackles. They were trailing 14-0 at half-time when the deficit could have easily been double that, but considering the extra work they had loaded themselves with they were always likely to get run over.

"We were fairly clinical in how we went about our work today," Hasler said. "We controlled the ball really well. We were patient and worked our sets out and got the rewards at the back end of the game, Take the two points, and move on."

In the round before Origin I, the Roosters overcame the loss of the same quartet of star forwards, thrashing Parramatta on the road. Coach Brad Fittler and captain Braith Anasta suggested the psyche of the players may have been invaded by a feeling that the same thing was going to happen yesterday.

"They slowed us down totally," Fittler said of Manly. "They made us look like we were going at a different speed to them."

Anasta added: "I think we tried to talk ourselves into it today."

Roosters replacement forward Mickey Paea got himself on report for a high tackle on Manly prop Josh Perry. Sea Eagles second-rower Glenn Stewart got a knock to his knee, but may not miss a game since Manly have the bye next weekend.

Lyon got plenty of praise for his performance. He may not be another Cliff Lyons, but who is these days?