It was a far cry from the surface which greeted Melbourne when the Storm travelled to Brookvale Oval last Saturday. Fairfax Media understands the NRL will ask for a please explain as to why the surface was in such a patchy state. It is understood that Manly's under-16 and under-18 teams will have their home fixtures moved away to help preserve the ground ahead of the NRL team's next home game. Manly do not return to Brookvale until Sunday May 10 for their round nine clash against Newcastle.

Canterbury captain James Graham wasn't bothered by the surface.

"I've played on worse," Graham said. "It's not ideal. It's the same for both teams. We can't have too many complaints."

Manly fullback Brett Stewart added: "Brookie has been that sort of length for a while now. It's no excuse."

Meanwhile, Canterbury coach Des Hasler went out of his way to avoid another sanctioning by the NRL by avoiding any mention of the match officials. When pressed on the video referee's decision to overturn a no try decision to Steve Matai, Hasler would only speak of Aiden Tolman's reaction.

Tolman believed he had held Matai up over the try line.

"I couldn't see it from where I was," Hasler said.  "Aiden was pretty sure that the player didn't get the ball down. [With] technology they ruled against the referees. We have to take the decision and move on.

"[The game] wasn't one for the purists. [The game] never seemed to get going. Brookvale is a tough place to win a game of football."

Manly coach Geoff Toovey is confident skipper Jamie Lyon will return in time to face St George Illawarra next Saturday after straining his leg in the teams captain's run on Thursday. Toovey is hopeful Kieran Foran will also make his return from a hamstring injury.

The Manly mentor wanted better decisions from his player at key times.

"I hate saying it, the effort is there but the execution was really poor in the first half," Toovey said. "[We were] very poor in our completions."