A wise prophet sidled up to Fillets at the bowlo following last Saturday's disappointing loss to Northern Suburbs, offering two pieces of sage advice.

"Get into the Stone and Wood, they're only seven bucks a schooner," he whispered from the corner of his mouth.

"And forget about that game. That will sting the boys into action, they are hurting big time."

He was spot on about the beer, so let's hope he's equally as accurate about a Marlins' revival.

For those who missed it – and you're among the lucky ones – we dropped from third to sixth on the table after Norths completely outplayed us in a 31-10 loss at Manly Oval.

The Shoremen came with more intent and had us on the back foot from the get-go, although it would have been interesting had we not been robbed of a try with the score at 17-10 early in the second half. 

We failed to score a point in the second half despite running to our favoured Sydney Rd end and the better side won, simple as that.

We now turn out attention to Saturday's semi-final where we face minor premiers Easts at Woollahra Oval..

Lose and there is no tomorrow for the Marlins. Win and we face Norths or Warringah in the following week's elimination final.

I don’t know about you lot, but I'm not ready for the season to end just yet.

And neither are the players we spoke to at fulltime in the Norths game.

After his first run-on appearance for Manly in nine years, lock Cadeyrn Neville said: "It's disappointing. We didn’t really maintain any pressure once we got field position.

"But we know if we get things right, we can beat anyone. We've just got to have that do-or-die attitude from the get-go for the next three weeks."

Halfback Jack Stafford sang a similar tune.

"It doesn’t really matter who we've got next. It's pretty simple - you've got to win or it’s over," he said.

"There are no excuses not to come out firing."

Skipper Hunter Ward takes great heart from the 18-16 loss to the Beasties in round 10.

"I thought we were pretty unlucky when we met them earlier in the season and probably should have come away with the win," he said.

"We've just got to be a little more polished in our execution. The talent is there to win it from sixth."

Halfback Jamie Hill unfortunately injured a shoulder at training and won’t play, while punishing centre Byron Sharwood is also unlikely to front as he continues his recovery from a heavy head knock.

But this is a very good Manly team coach Chris Delooze has selected.

And it's time to stand up and make a real statement.