Hasler weighs up No.1 switch as Sea Eagles rocked by injuries

Dylan Walker's difficult days at fullback for Manly may well be over as Des Hasler considers a backline shake-up despite more injuries leaving him with limited options come team list time.

In admittedly atrocious conditions at Lottoland, Walker was in all sorts more than once under the radar of Adam Reynolds.

The Rabbitohs No.7 had a field day raining bombs down on Walker, who struggled as Tom Trbojevic's No.1 replacement in the 26-12 loss.

Trbojevic is not due back for at least another week from his latest hamstring issue, though Hasler did not back away from suggestions he will tinker with his side.

The Sea Eagles copped further injury headaches in the round two defeat, losing luckless second-rower Andrew Davey to a suspected ACL rupture and Cade Cust to a heavy concussion.

With a shortage of edge forwards Hasler thrust highly-rated rookie Josh Schuster into the back row and hinted further upheaval for next Friday's clash with St George Illawarra.

"It was a tough day today for any fullback," Hasler said of Walker's two errors and failure to stop a crucial 40-20 from Reynolds.

"But obviously we've got to keep looking at that. We might need to reshuffle some players.

"I thought Brad Parker was really good today so we might have a look at options around that. Brad might find himself in the second row, we'll see.

Of Trbojevic's recovery Hasler said: "He's not going to fix all the problems. We're certainly not going to rush Tom back.

"Sometimes these things have a habit - the season starts pretty hard - and we've just got to ride through it at the moment."

The reference to shifting Parker would allow Walker to return to the left-centre role he trained at for most of summer, with the likes of Morgan Harper, Reuben Garrick and Jason Saab all possible No.1 options.

Curtis Sironen's knee injury (4-6 weeks), Haumole Olakau'atu (six weeks) and Davey's devastating blow have left Manly short of back-rowers.

Davey's is a particularly tough injury to cop given his debut at the age of 28 last year made him one of the oldest NRL rookies in history.

After almost a decade of trying to crack first grade he is now facing a significant stint on the sidelines having joined Manly from Parramatta this year.

The loss to South Sydney was Manly's 10th from 11 games going back to midway through last season.

But it was at least a stark improvement on the round one thrashing from the Roosters, with Hasler saying the fight shown by his players will be rewarded if they can replicate it each week.

"It's early days, it's only round two," he said.

"As long as we keep that level of competition that we had tonight. But we've got to maintain that and get some players back on the field.

“There are clutch moments in the game where we just have to be better than we currently are.

“We need to keep mindful of that. The two points were there and we didn’t go on with it. We need to step up and fix that. It’s not going to get any easier, is it? Particularly with some of the injuries we picked up today.”