The defending women's champions were never troubled in a 75-37 rout to open their account for the year but it was hard work for the men, going down 84-73 to an experienced Manly outfit.

Newcastle never trailed in the women's game and the men never led, leaving both teams with 1-1 win-loss records after two rounds of the restarted season.

"It was baby steps but we're heading in the right direction. There were definitely signs of improvement," Hunters women's coach Martin McLean said.

"We set some defensive goals and achieved those, and because we had such a good first half defensively, that allowed us to get everyone on the court to play some minutes and everyone who stepped on the court made contributions.

"We were still a bit clunky offensively, but we have a bye next weekend so we'll be able to use the next two weeks at training to really work hard on that."

Newcastle had 14 points on the board before the Sea Eagles made their first basket, and after leading 20-7 at quarter-time and 34-13 at the long break, the result was never in doubt.

Twin towers Rachael McGinniskin (15 points, eight rebounds) and Lara McSpadden (15 points, six rebounds, two assists) proved hard to stop in the paint, and Hannah Young made her presence felt inside and out with nine points, 12 rebounds and three assists.

Captain Mikaela Dombkins had 14 points and five rebounds, Cassidy McLean added 10 points, four rebounds, four steals and two assists, and Elle Carroll threw herself into her defensive assignments and hustled hard to recover loose balls and make other effort plays.

The roles were reversed in the men's contest as Manly jumped to a 5-0 lead and stretched that to 32-19 by quarter-time, making six of 10 three-pointers in the process.

Newcastle reeled in a 22-point deficit at three-quarter time to beat Norths 77-75 on the road seven nights earlier but they drew no closer than seven points in the final quarter against Manly.

"They're a very experienced group and have been together for a while now and they bullied us out of it, and did a good job of that," Hunters coach Rex Nottage said.

"They shot the ball well and made big shots when it mattered.

"We struggled with their physicality and that meant we had trouble reversing the ball, so hopefully we learn some lessons from that."

Forward Chier Maker led the scoring for Newcastle with 15 points but they all came from three-point range or the free-throw line.

Jacob Foy (13 points, three rebounds), Will Howell (12 points, seven rebounds, three assists) and Myles Cherry (10 points, 10 rebounds, five assists) also made valuable contributions.

Manly's Christian Jurlina led all scorers with 21 points, including five of nine three-pointers, and Kevin White (18 points) was a perfect four from four from three-point range.

The Hunters men will be at home again next Saturday night against Bankstown Bruins, and the women have a bye.