The Sea Eagles head north in Round 7 to take on former long-time coach Des Hasler for the first time since he left the club at the end of 2022.
Hasler suffered the latest, and probably most brutal, blow of his short tenure in charge of the Titans last week by way of a golden point loss to the Raiders, which resigned his side to a 0-5 start.
Manly suffered heartbreak of their own in Round 6, but still left with a point for their efforts, after being run down late by the Warriors and taken to gold point where a winner still couldn't be found after 10 minutes of additional play.
While they picked up three more injury concerns in that game, coach Anthony Seibold also confirmed that frontline players Reuben Garrick, Jason Saab and Matt Lodge would return in Round 7.
The Titans have won both of their two most recent meetings with the Sea Eagles, while in 14 games coaching against Manly to date (all while he was in charge of the Bulldogs) Hasler has won 10 times.
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Team News
Titans: David Fifita moves to the interchange bench in a late forward reshuffle which sees Isaac Liu promoted to start at lock and Klese Haas shifting to the second-row. Phillip Sami, who was named to take the place of the injured Jayden Campbell, failed his fitness test on Thursday and won't be making a return from an ankle injury. AJ Brimson, who was originally named to partner Kieran Foran in the halves, will move back to fullback and Tanah Boyd returns at five-eighth. Tony Francis is 18th man.
Sea Eagles: A change on Friday with Dean Matterson added to the bench in place of Nathan Brown, who has failed to overcome a knee injury. Matt Lodge (ACL), Reuben Garrick (concussion) and Jason Saab (hamstring) are all back on deck. Those returns are somewhat offset by the loss of Ben Trbojevic (hamstring and Toafofoa Sipley (knee). There were no other changes when the team was finalised 60 minutes before kick-off.
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Stat Attack
- The Titans have scored 70 points in their last two games against the Sea Eagles.
- The Sea Eagles have won four of their past five games at Cbus Super Stadium.
- Titans fullback AJ Brimson has scored six tries in eight games against the Sea Eagles.
- Sea Eagles centre Reuben Garrick has scored 66 points in his last four games at Cbus Super Stadium.
- Titans coach Des Hasler has won seven of his last eight games coaching against the Sea Eagles.
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Stats supplied by David Middleton, League Information Services, author of the .