Canberra Raiders youngster Edrick Lee has revealed the club's outside backs discussed their defensive deficiencies immediately after they were exposed by the Sydney Roosters on Sunday.
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Every Roosters try was scored down the edges in the 34-6 win, and solving the issue will be a major focus as Canberra desperately looks to avoid a fourth straight loss to Manly at Albury on Saturday.
Canberra has lost four of its first five games just once the past decade, in 2011 in the midst of a club record eight-game losing streak.
The Raiders have also lost their past five games against the Sea Eagles, but Manly is battling a huge casualty ward.
Centres Steve Matai (shoulder) and Jamie Lyon (groin) are in doubt, while forwards Feleti Mateo (knee) and Josh Starling have been ruled out after suffering injuries in Saturday's loss to the Dragons.
Lee was thrust into right centre to start the season, but admitted he struggled with the added workload after two seasons ruined by serious injury.
Raiders coach Ricky Stuart said it was "an easy decision" to put Lee back to the left wing after Melbourne Storm recruit Sisa Waqa (knee) was ruled out.
"I think he looked more comfortable there, he's found the workload of centre a bit heavy for him not playing a lot of footy last year and not much at centre over his career," Stuart said.
"It was a bit of a trial to see how he'd go there, especially with Sisa being involved. Losing him and moving Eddie to the left was a pretty easy decision.
Canberra's three-quarter line is one of the NRL's youngest and Lee said the Roosters humbling was a valuable learning curve.
"We addressed that straight away after the game with us outside backs, we know for us to be better on the edges we have to keep working on our defence," Lee said.
"The one thing the Roosters do well is attack the edges, they run the right lines and have the right depth, which makes it very hard to defend.
"We'll look to move on from this game, learn from our mistakes and fix them for Manly."
Lee had struggled to make an impact at centre but said returning to the wing had given him the confidence boost he needed.
"One thing we spoke about [with Stuart] was the workload at centre, I was a bit surprised to play it round one just having the one trial under my belt," he said.
"There was a lot of positives I can take out of it, I was more involved and hopefully I can find more energy and lift the boys."
Raiders skipper Croker said rectifying their edge defence would be a major focus before they look to end a three-game losing streak against the Sea Eagles.
"I think so, it's hard to talk about it right now because we have to sit back and have a look at it," Croker said.
"A couple of times there [against the Roosters] it was probably just all a bit too quick, we couldn't get our numbers right and they chewed us up."
Despite being outclassed, Croker believes Canberra's back-line will develop into a unit that can hold its own against benchmarks such as the Roosters.
"I've got no doubt our back-line can grow into a side like that," Croker said.
"It's going to take time, but I think we're headed in the right direction.
"Rapa [Jordan Rapana] and Jack Wighton were really strong with the footy, that's a positive moving forward."
Meanwhile, Raiders hooker Josh Hodgson has accepted the early guilty plea and avoided suspension after being cited for a dangerous contact charge on Rooster Boyd Cordner.
SATURDAY
NRL round five: Manly Sea Eagles v Canberra Raiders at Albury, 5.30pm
Tickets available from Ticketek
TV Time: Live on Fox Sports
