Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold has declared superstar fullback Tom Trbojevic will return for their elimination final against the Bulldogs next week, but admits his side will need to improve to keep their season alive.
Manly have been one of the big improvers in 2024 but they were handed a reality check by the Sharks on the eve of finals on Sunday.
Anthony Seibold’s men were playing for the right to host that clash against Canterbury, but they folded to concede their biggest defeat of the year in a 40-20 loss.
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Bulldogs forward Max King joins the Fox League podcast to go inside the Bulldogs’ remarkable 2024 revival and chat about the impact of coach Cameron Ciraldo, captain Stephen Crichton and the club’s renowned defensive system
The Sea Eagles beat the Bulldogs just last weekend but Seibold emphasised there will be no complacency heading into the knockout clash next Saturday.
“How could we be complacent after that today? We were way off,” he said.
“They really suffocated us with their defence and obviously they were very good (in attack).
“We were a little bit below where we wanted to be but that’s footy sometimes. Can’t dwell too much, obviously we’re disappointed because we had the opportunity to play for a home semi but you need to look at the biggest picture.
“There are nine other teams who will wake up tomorrow morning and would love to be in our position.
“We need to understand that and we also need to understand it’s a six-day turnaround and we need to move pretty quickly into the next job.
“We’re playing a Bulldogs side that will be far better than last night (44-6 loss to the Cowboys), they’ve got three or four players coming back into their team and we’ve got a couple as well.”
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Seibold confirmed Trbojevic will return from a shoulder injury but that winger Jason Saab (ankle) is unlikely.
“Tom will play, it’s grade three, we’ve had Saaby and Tolu play with that same injury in the same turnaround time so it won’t be an issue,” he said.
“Saaby, I don’t think will play.”
Seibold said “of course” his side can go deep in the finals and added that their 2024 record proves they can beat almost any side.
“Other than the Sharks we’ve beaten every side in the top eight…. the evidence is there,” Seibold said.
“We’ve got to realise we’ve made some really significant gains this year. We’ve won more games than last year, we made the playoffs and we’ve done some really good things.
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“There have been some times where we haven’t quite been at our best. But we’ll wake up tomorrow and be focused on the Bulldogs and the opportunity we’ve got as a club to go across the harbour and I imagine there will be 40,000 or 50,000 there next Saturday.
“We expect the Bulldogs to be at their best, at their best they’ve played some excellent footy this year and at our best we’ve played some excellent footy this year.”
“We’ll turn up and we’ll be at our best.”
Manly skipper Daly Cherry-Evans said they have six days to fix their defence or their season will end at Accor Stadium.
“Defensively letting 40 in was the problem, that’s the work on for us and that probably showed in our attitude today,” he said.
“We just weren’t there and that’s disappointing considering what was on the line but that’s the facts of what’s happened today. We’ve got to move on real quickly because we’ve got a finals game next week.”
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