Trbojevic scored a double and set up another three tries in Manly's big win, as he seemingly emerged from the lockdown a better player than he went in.

The Manly No.1 looked a step above on the Central Coast, as the Sea Eagles controlled the match from the outset and never looked threatened.

It condemned the listless Bulldogs to their worst start to a season since 1996 at 0-3, as they simply had no answer to the Trbojevic show.

His predecessor Brett Stewart was widely regarded as Manly's greatest ever fullback when he retired in 2016 alongside Graham Eadie but early indications are Trbojevic could be even more damaging still.

Not that he is willing to buy into the hype.

"I'm certainly not above him, what he did in his career was pretty special," Trbojevic said of Stewart.

"He was a great player and great bloke. When he was around it was great to have him there. The circumstances now make it hard (to work with him).

"There is still a lot to learn ... defensively I am still learning a lot."

He opened the scoring in the fourth minute when some nice hands from Curtis Sironen put Moses Suli free, before he found Trbojevic back inside him.

His next try came courtesy of his brother Jake, who put on a perfectly timed short ball with Tom trailing behind him just before the line to make it 8-0.

The Manly ace then backed it up again before and after the break to put Brad Parker over twice and Jorge Taufua once.

Dylan Walker and Daly Cherry-Evans also both impressed in the halves for Manly, while Sironen was also rewarded for a good night with a try on the right edge.

"There's no doubt about it, (Tom)'s a class player," coach Des Hasler said.

"He had three try assists and scored two himself. But he had plenty of good players around him.

"In the second half once we fixed up a couple of our end of set options ... we really controlled the flow of possession."

The win sets up a Saturday night blockbuster with the unbeaten Parramatta.

Meanwhile, Canterbury only had themselves to blame as they broke Manly's line just once and were lucky not to lose by more as Reuben Garrick kicked just two from seven for the Sea Eagles.

Four times they had errors while attacking Manly's line in the opening 20 minutes, before Jake Averillo got their only try late when he ran onto a Lachlan Lewis grubber.

The Bulldogs should at least have Kieran Foran back next week, but coach Dean Pay warned that the entire team must improve.

"We got down the field okay and got into some good-ball situations, but came up with six errors the first seven times we went down there," Pay said.

Australian Associated Press