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The Sea Eagles’ best win of 2024 should have had them feeling confident of making a playoff charge but yet another injury to Tom Trbojevic has cast a dark shadow over their prospects.
Manly coach Anthony Seibold is confident Trbojevic’s shoulder injury is not serious but with only one week before the finals, his hopes and that of the team’s hinge on scans on Saturday revealing the extent of the damage.
Their 34-22 upset win meant Canterbury’s top-four hopes are over after Penrith put away South Sydney 34-12 in the later Friday match at BlueBet Stadium.
It was revealed during the week that Trbojevic had offered to take a significant pay cut as a show of good faith to the Sea Eagles for sticking by him during his injury-plagued past four seasons.
This was his 18th appearance for 2024 after a hamstring tear sidelined him midway through the year but over the previous five seasons he has tallied just 55 matches in Manly maroon.
It looked like he had copped a heavy blow to his leg early in the second half when he made a last-ditch attempt to stop a Viliame Kikau try and was rewarded for his effort by the Fijian forward’s head crashing into his shin.
Trbojevic copped a heavy blow to his left leg in the first half of his 150th game with a last-ditch tackle on Viliame Kikau close to the line and he also suffered a head wound in the incident which ended his night early.
The AC joint injury happened in the 64th minute when he took down Bulldogs forward Jacob Preston but teammate Luke Brooks came in to complete the tackle over the top and his body weight landed on Trbojevic’s arm as he was on the turf.
He will get scans on Saturday and his best-case scenario appears to be a chance of being available to play in the finals.
Tom Trbojevic is assisted off Accor Stadium. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
His 2022 season ended abruptly after seven games when he dislocated his left shoulder and after a luckless run of hamstring injuries, the 27-year-old fullback had been in strong form lately to give Manly hope that they can do some damage in the finals.
But they will be at long odds to make any noise in the playoffs if Trbojevic is sidelined.
Tolu Koula is the likely candidate to fill in at fullback while Jason Saab is also set to miss time with a syndesmosis injury after he copped a hip-drop tackle from Canterbury centre Bronson Xerri.
Manly coach Anthony Seibold was hopeful that scans on Saturday will deliver good news.
“He will definitely miss next week. He will get an x-ray. He will be right for round one of the finals,” he said.
“We will put a plan together for him. We’ll make sure we look after him and he’ll be right to go again.
“He copped a cork to his shin. He was in the wars a little bit tonight but those types of injuries aren’t season ending.
“All going well from what I understand he will be available for week one. It’s pain management. You can needle them (AC injuries) up and play.”
Canterbury’s vaunted defensive juggernaut went to water at Accor Stadium.
They scored after the first set of the match when they converted a penalty kick downfield into a scorching team try to Reed Mahoney.
With more than 35,000 Bulldogs fans out of the woodwork to celebrate their return to the finals after eight long years, the early try looked like it would usher in another dominant performance.
But their defence, rated No.1 in the league, fell apart with the Sea Eagles running in four first-half tries including a clever scrum move which exploited Josh Addo-Carr’s tendency to rush in from his wing.
Dogs coach Cameron Ciraldo was not too concerned with the flat performance – the team had been starting to look a little mentally drained after five straight wins.
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The 12-point margin flattered the Dogs after they notched two late tries when the result was beyond doubt.
“What we want to focus on is getting our systems and our processes better than what they were tonight,” Ciraldo said.
“And I’ve got to say, it’s the first time this year I’ve walked off feeling disappointed in our defence.
“We’ve been really consistent. Our effort and our attitude has been really high. We missed the mark a little bit tonight.”
Manly’s win over Canterbury lifts them to one point behind the Bulldogs and Cowboys heading into the final round on the ladder.
They can leapfrog either of those sides, who face off with each other next Saturday, when they host Cronulla on the last Sunday of the regular season to finish in sixth spot and earn a home elimination final.
As much as Trbojevic’s absence will hurt them, Manly’s win over the Dogs was constructed by four big boppers in the middle who kept bending the defensive line.
Brown, Olakau’atu, Paseka and Lodge may sound like an accounting firm but it was the numbers they recorded on the stats sheet which added up to a Manly win.
Taniela Paseka (178 running metres) and Matthew Lodge (137) established early dominance, Nathan Brown (188) was all effort off the bench and Haumole Olakau’atu was a constant threat on the edge, easily winning his head-to-head match-up with Kikau.
He registered 104 metres, with 60 of them post contact, unfurled a brilliant offload for Trbojevic’s first-half try and cause the Dogs nightmares throughout the 80 minutes.
Brown and Lodge are not everyone’s cup of tea but the rugged old Sea Eagles are on the field to ruffle feathers, not make friends, and they unsettled the Bulldogs through the middle.
The three-time premiers are getting the easiest of runs into the finals with home games against Souths and the Titans to act as glorified training runs.
There was a sense of inevitability from kick-off on Friday night and after Isaah Yeo put James Fisher-Harris over for an early 6-0 lead, it was always going to be a case of by how much.
The Rabbitohs didn’t surrender but they were outclassed in every department.
Luke Garner and Brad Schneider touched down to make it 18-0 with Sunia Turuva bouncing back to form after his recent demotion with two tries in the second half as Ivan Cleary’s troops cemented a top-four berth.
They need the Roosters or Sharks to slip up in the final two rounds to get any higher than fourth and avoid a first-up trip to AAMI Park to face Melbourne in a qualifying final.
The Panthers have cut the for-and-against deficit to Cronulla to within 24 points with their Rabbitohs rout so they could sneak past them into third if the Sharks only have narrow wins over the Warriors and Manly while Penrith run up a big score on the Gold Coast.
Even the Penrith fans didn’t mind when Rabbitohs winger Tyrone Munro scored twice.
The 19-year-old speedster’s mother died during the week but he opted to play the match to pay tribute to Kirawhan Fernando, who he described in a heartfelt social media post as his “beautiful Angel mum who was always trying to help everyone and make sure everyone was okay”.
His uncle also passed away before the match but he took his spot on the wing and performed brilliantly.
Cody Walker put a chip over the defensive line and the ball bounced up perfectly for Munro to touch down out wide before he was swamped by his teammates in an emotional moment late in the first half.
He also snared a long-range intercept try in the 54th minute to sprint away from the cover defence, pointing to tributes to his departed family members on the strapping tape on each wrist.
Munro has missed a large chunk of this season due to a fractured collarbone but he is clearly made of strong stuff and with five tries in just six NRL appearances, he has a big future in the game. More power to him.
The Rabbitohs have one more match left to complete a miserable season.
After being ruled out for the rest of the year with a foot injury, Latrell Mitchell is apparently now an outside chance of being available, which not so coincidentally comes after the NRL dictated that he has to serve his “white powder” ban only when available for selection.
The Bunnies have continued their policy of dishing out preferential treatment to their controversial star by claiming he is now fit and ready so he doesn’t have to serve his ban in Round 1 next year.
If the NRL had waited another fortnight before announcing the sanctions, do you reckon Mitchell would have been named in the squad for the final round against the Roosters?
Of course not. It’s another fine mess.