The Penrith Panthers ran out winners in the opening game of the NRL season, putting the cleaners through the Manly Sea Eagles.
In doing so, they reminded the remainder of the competition that shutting down the Sea Eagles is all down to removing the influence of Tom Trbojevic, who had an extremely quiet game.
The 28-6 final scoreline almost wasn't a fair reflection of how dominant the Panthers were.
They dominated possession and defended as if their life depended on it, but more than that, the men from the foot of the mountains never let Trbojevic out of their grasp for a moment.
While Trbojevic still made north of 120 metres in the contest, including a line break and a try assist, he had none of his usual impact.
It has to be remembered that Trbojevic is the player who won the Dally M award despite only playing 15 regular season games last season.
It has to be remembered that Trbojevic turned Manly into a force after the club started the season with a handful of straight losses, and it has to be remembered that the star of the show put on the undisputed best regular season of any player in recent memory.
But what Trbojevic couldn't do last year was work out how to play the top sides, and so it continued to start 2022.
Trbojevic was still solid enough in some of those games, including their eventual finals loss in the preliminary finals to the South Sydney Rabbitohs, and their earlier non-elimination final against the South Sydney Rabbitohs, which they also lost.
Manly's problem against Penrith was the same as it was all of last year though.
Trbojevic must be exceptional, particularly against the top teams, to have a show of dragging his team to those victories. Without him, the club simply don't have the weapons in the arsenal to get the job done.
Penrith were outstanding - of that there can be no doubt - but it will count for little to Manly's supporters if they can't find a way to start beating the top teams on a regular basis this season.
The 2021 season never had any expectations for Manly - it was a season where their eventual top six finish outperformed every expectation placed on the men from the northern beaches.
But 2022 isn't like that.
2022 has the club primed for a push to win the competition, but it won't happen unless they can find a way to beat the top teams, and despite a full off-season to get it right, it appears they simply haven't.
Daly Cherry-Evans, like Trbojevic, was solid, but didn't receive enough support in attack to let his game sing. Kieran Foran too didn't do a lot wrong.
But there were too many errors with the football in hand, and not enough strong decision making to ever look like getting back into a game they were, in truth, never really alive in.
Manly defended incredibly well, and that is a positive without doubt as they scrambled - particularly in the first half - to stop plenty of extra points being score, but that isn't going to win them the premiership.
The pact of play in the new era of NRL means points, attack, and being able to score against the top teams is what will win the competition.
Everything going against them didn't help, but the scoreline should have been a lot worse than the 24 points to 6 that it ultimately ended up, and that in itself is a major cause for concern to Des Hasler and his coaching staff.
The Sea Eagles have, it must be added, lost their opening game of the season in each of the last nine seasons, but the signs simply weren't good enough.
That is even more so when the Sea Eagles have clearly made efforts to be more prepared for Round 1. They played most of their stars in both trials, and wanted to hit the ground running against the defending premiers.
They didn't.
It's a long season, but Manly needed to show more.
They needed to show more in the face of Trbojevic not being at his incredible best.
The fact that they simply didn't is a major cause for concern to the club.
