REPORTS claim Manly coach Trent Barrett could be out the door after a horror start to the 2018 season sees the Sea Eagles in a mess going into round nine.

A salary cap scandal kicked their year off on the wrong foot before an ugly saga unfolding involving rookie star Jackson Hastings and his compatibility with the playing group.

A swath of injuries has also plagued the Northern Beaches club as they sunk to 13th on the ladder by the end of round eight.

NRL reporter James Hooper lifted the lid on behind the scenes talks between coach Barrett and former players warning the 40-year-old not to re-sign with the club.

“There were people up on the Northern Beaches who have previously played for the Sea Eagles who went to Trent last year, the end of last year, and they told him don’t sign that new contract,” Hooper said on Fox Sports’ NRL 360 Wednesday night.

“Because this is all going to go pear shaped and it’s all going to fall into your lap.

“The leadership has been horrible up there. The way he’s been thrown front and centre, forced to front everything until Lyall Gorman decided to step out last Sunday ... that’s not leadership.

“I feel for Trent at the moment. I feel a lot of what has transpired at Manly — certainly the salary cap punishments and the roster that has been assembled — that hasn’t been a lot of his doing but he has been left holding the mug in his arms so to speak.”

The rumour is Barrett is weighing up bailing from the top job at Manly.

“You could understand if those types of conversations were going on,” Hooper said.

“I spoke to Trent last night, and he didn’t give me any indication at all that he was thinking of walking away.”

Long-time NRL journalist Paul Kent sympathised with Barrett’s sticky situation ahead of round nine.

“If Trent Barrett walks away I think full credit to him, because he’s left dealing with the fallout from a lot of decisions that weren’t his doing,” Kent said.

“The problem is if he stays and they continue to lose is we’ll all forget about this, and at the end of the year when his contract is up ... he’ll have three busted years as head coach and everyone will say he can’t coach, and suddenly his reputation is tarnished.

“There’s a lot of one-contract coaches in the game who do not a great job and they don’t come back.

“Trent Barrett doing this is very much like when Wayne Bennett sacked himself at Newcastle. “He said I can’t be around to fix this up, and he knew the damage it was going to cause.”

SACKED SULI RETURNS FOR SEA EAGLES

Troubled youngster Moses Suli is set to make his anticipated NRL debut for Manly with the club upgrading him from a development player to a full-time contract. Suli, who had been sacked already by the Wests Tigers and Canterbury, was named by Sea Eagles coach Trent Barrett on Tuesday, but needed to be moved into their 30-man roster to be allowed to play.

The upgrade on Wednesday allows Manly to field regular centre Dylan Walker at five-eighth and overlook controversial playmaker Jackson Hastings to take on the Sydney Roosters.

Barrett spoke last week about not wanting to be rushed into filling the final two positions in his 30-man squad, but that was before Lachlan Croker headlined the latest round of serious injuries at Brookvale.

The development is also the latest in a headline few months for Suli, who was released from big-dollar deals at the Tigers and the Bulldogs for failing to reach team standards.

He has since broken through 22 tackles and scored two tries in four NSW Cup games for Manly’s feeder club Blacktown Workers.

Hastings hasn’t played for Manly since last month’s disastrous trip to Gladstone and has spent the past three games playing for Blacktown as the club’s woes continue.

He was named in the No. 19 jersey, but appeared unlikely to play, given he did not train with the team on Tuesday before Wednesday’s day off. Teammate and NRL state of mind ambassador Joel Thompson backed Barrett’s selections but said Hastings’ welfare had to be kept in mind. “No one wants to see players that come under pressure from media and different stuff like that,” Thompson said.

“Myself and other players made sure we got in touch with him and made sure he was okay.

“I’m not best mates with Hasto but made sure he’s okay, made sure he had our support there if he needed it. He will come out of it. He’ll be fine and he’ll learn a lot from it.”

— with AAP