The Sea Eagles surrendered a 20-4 half-time lead on Sunday to lose 30-26 a Wests outfit who entered the match in last position.

A win could have seen the Sea Eagles enter the top four.

Instead, they are fighting to keep their finals hopes alive.

Dumb play saw Manly gift Wests good field position including two intercept passes thrown by Tom Trobjovic and a knock-on inside the final two minutes by centre Brad Parker on his own tryline as his side held a narrow 26-24 lead.

The northern beaches club remains in seventh position, but must banish their amateurish passages of play if they are to feature in September.

“We just didn’t make them earn anything they got,” Barrett said. 

“And taking nothing away from the Tigers. Considering what we had to play for it was very disappointing. It hurts and just makes next week (against the Bulldogs) even more important.”

Manly were their own worst enemy, giving away silly penalties, losing possession, and failing to secure the ball in defence as Tigers offloaded at will in a touch football-type display.

“Too many offloads and missed tackles on their outside backs really hurt us,” Barrett said.

“The drop after points, the two intercepts, Brad Parker (dropping the ball). They’ve got a lot of good individuals and we knew we weren’t going to come here and just roll through the middle.

“I thought we were a try away when we were up by eight in that’s second half and we would have put them away, but we just kept inviting them back into the contest.

“The crowd gets behind them and it felt like it was coming and it did.

“It doesn’t matter where they (Tigers) are sitting on the ladder. Every team’s operating under the same salary cap, everybody’s got good players, if you give them enough opportunities they’ll hurt you and we got hurt badly today.”