MANLY coach Des Hasler is big on body language. If he sees one of his players dragging his feet as he walks from the car park to training, he'll call out "body language", as a means of reminding him that people can tell if you're not looking confident or on top of things.

Hasler would not have liked his team's body language at the 28-minute mark of last night's match, after another big break from Melbourne fullback Billy Slater was immediately followed by a Storm penalty.

The Sea Eagles turned their backs and headed towards their own line, to prepare for another Melbourne onslaught. Players were either looking to the sky or to the ground, but not to each other.

It was as if they knew they were going to have to come up with a brand of resolve beyond anything they had previously produced this season just to still be in the game at half-time and didn't want to catch each other's eyes just in case there was extreme doubt circulating and it was infectious.

But, amazingly, as it turned out, they were still in it at the break, trailing only 10-4 after they had been down 10-0 at the time of that Slater breakout. Hasler would not have been happy with that. No coach is ever truly happy to be trailing in a game, but he would have at least been satisfied his team wasn't dead yet.

There was probably a three-try difference between the two teams in the first half yet here they were, just one try apart.

The Melbourne defence cut up the Sea Eagles as no other team had cut them up this season. The only thing that had kept Manly from being further behind was the desperation of their goal-line defence - and some good luck.

Melbourne decided to bomb exclusively to Manly winger Michael Robertson's side in the first half. Maybe it was the pre-match plan - or perhaps it was because they sensed a bit of uncertainty as a result what happened at the kick-off. The ball went straight towards Robertson, but neither he nor the nearest Manly player - halfback Matt Orford - went for it.

They let it bounce and the Sea Eagles began the match by scrambling off their own line. Manly starting their sets from very poor field position was to become a trend.

Manly just couldn't get anything worthwhile going in attack in the first half. They needed Melbourne to make a mistake and they had to wait until time had almost expired for that to happen. Melbourne hooker Cameron Smith dropped a bomb and off the ensuing set Sea Eagles centre Steve Matai scored.

But no one rushed to declare the Manly try as the dawning of a new era, not in this game. You would have attracted some funny looks if you had.

The last thing Manly needed was for something to go wrong at the start of the second half. Well, guess what? Something went wrong - very wrong.

Storm five-eighth Greg Inglis had tried to put up a torpedo bomb from deep in the first half, but the ball had come off the front of his boot - end over end - and had not caused any difficulty. Inglis tried it again two minutes after the break and this time it was a ripper. Manly fullback Brett Stewart took it - and got smashed a millisecond later.

That was the end of the night for Manly's most dynamic attacker - and so the end for Manly. Not that they were going to get back into the game anyway, but maybe they could have held Melbourne at bay for just a little longer.

The Sea Eagles will learn a lot from the loss, but at the same time the defeat exposed deficiencies not seen earlier in the season. That is the challenge confronting Hasler now, to put his team in a position to go one better next year.

It won't be easy, because there is every chance the Storm will get better as well.