They finally removed their Manly hex but the Sydney Roosters say proving they're the real deal to the rest of the NRL will take a little more work.

Going into the match with the Sea Eagles on the back of a combined 98-0 points deficit from their last two clashes, the Roosters exacted some revenge as they trounced the ladder leaders 34-12 at the Sydney Football Stadium.

It didn't take away the pain or the embarrassment of what happened in the past, but boy did it feel good.

"Every time they've got us they've hammered us, they haven't let us off lightly at all," said Roosters coach Brad Fittler of the previous clashes.

"Not only was the score 40, but they really touched us up, they were pretty brutal in the way they did it.

"We had a couple of young blokes playing and they just showed no mercy.

"When you get rid of something like that, you can move on, just tick it off."

"We got them when they were pretty light ... we've still got a long way to go and we're all aware of that."

Before a boisterous crowd of 22,681, it didn't take the Roosters long to start righting past wrongs.

There was nothing timid in the way they played, and their relentless approach paid handsome dividends as they raced to an 18-0 lead after just 12 minutes.

A chargedown of a Brett Stewart kick and some brilliant finger-tip control from Mitchell Pearce - who kicked ahead as he lost control of the ball - led to the opening four-pointer, Mitch Aubusson's try ending his team's 200-minute barren stretch against the Sea Eagles.

Shaun Kenny Dowall doubled the advantage three minutes later before a crunching hit on Steve Menzies saw the ball pop up for Amos Roberts to score his first of the day for an 18-0 lead.

"We haven't been in a game like that for a long time and some of those tries were coming way too easy," Manly skipper Matt Orford said.

"We probably defended 90 per cent of that first half, we just had no ball.

"It didn't matter how much we stood behind our tryline we just kept coming up with stupid little errors. We're not that kind of team ... a bit of a reality check today."

The two sides traded tries before the break but a downpour which started during the interval made the visitors' task in catching up all that more difficult.

Belying the conditions, greyhounds Roberts and Stewart then attempted to outdo each other with long range solo efforts.

Roberts went 85 metres as he put the match just about beyond doubt before Stewart picked up a Braith Anasta grubber one metre out from his own line and outsprinted the cover to make it 28-12 with just over 20 minutes remaining.

But there was to be no miracle comeback from the Sea Eagles, who blew a golden opportunity to take a stranglehold on the minor premiership given premier Melbourne's shock loss to the New Zealand Warriors in Auckland.

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