Manly coach Anthony Seibold has opened up on the progress the Sea Eagles have made as the club prepares for just its fourth finals campaign in 11 years.
Seibold has done some outstanding work in his second season in charge after taking over from Des Hasler at the end of 2022 following the Sea Eagles’ tumultuous pride jersey saga.
The club finished 11th that year before Seibold galvanised the club who finished finish seventh this season in a year that has seen Manly beat six of the other seven top eight sides and play some of their best football in years.
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The Sea Eagles haven’t won a premiership since 2011 when a fresh-faced Daly Cherry-Evans burst onto the scene to help the club claim the title in his rookie year and Seibold is doing his best not to look past this weekend’s sudden death belter at Accor Stadium.
“This is all brand new for most of them,” Seibold told Cody Kaye on Fox League’s NRL Tonight.
“The reality of it is that you talk about the legacy of the past you’ve got to understand where this club’s come from.
“The club’s only made the play-offs three times in the last 11 years before this year so this is four times in 11 years.
“So for much of the group that haven’t played in a lot of big games this is one big step forward and it’s the first time we’ve been able to play a final in Sydney because obviously in 2021 some of the guys played in the finals it was all up in Queensland.
“So to have a stack of our supporters out there on Sunday afternoon supporting us against a really good Bulldogs side it is just fantastic to be part of that.
“But looking past that is not on our radar.”
Seibold hinted his side may be underdogs for Sunday’s clash with more than 50,000 people, mostly Bulldogs supporters, expected at Accor Stadium.
“I don’t think we’d be favourites this week the – Bulldogs seem to be the flavour of the month at the moment,” he said.
“We’ve got great evidence that we can beat the best sides in the competition and the evidence we go back to is six of the seven best sides in the competition we’ve beaten this year.
“There’s probably not too many teams in the top eight that have that record against the beat teams. The evidence is there but it’s a really narrow focus this week.”
The Sea Eagles have won eight premierships since entering the competition in 1947, while their 13-year gap between grand final wins marks the longest premiership drought since claiming their maiden title in 1972.
And despite Manly’s rich history of success, Seibold said his side were not weighed down what has come before.
Seibold ready to put big loss behind | 07:52
“One of the things that this current group can’t get burdened by is what’s happened in the past,” he said.
“Whether that’s by a successful legacy or a not so successful legacy that doesn’t come into my thinking.
“Having lived in the area, my family have lived in the area since the end of 2015 so it’s the longest that my family have ever lived anywhere so they’re northern beaches people.
“We’ve made some real big gains over the last two years. In 2022 the club only won two games against top eight sides. In ’23 we won three game against top eight sides. And this year out of the seven other teams in the top eight, we’ve managed to beat six of those teams. Cronulla was the only team we haven’t been able to beat this year.
“I feel like the club’s moving on the right direction, I feel like we’ve got some fantastic men in our group so it’s a really narrow focus on the Bulldogs this Sunday afternoon.”
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