It was only last year when the Raiders were the trendy pick to claim the wooden spoon, only for the Green Machine to make everyone look silly by winning the minor premiership.
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Now it’s the Sea Eagles who have become the popular pick among experts to finish at the bottom of the table, with Manly $12 to have the most losses in 2026.
Jamal Fogarty was at Canberra last year and has now moved to Manly where he’s replaced Daly Cherry-Evans in the No. 7 jersey he has owned for the past 15 seasons.
The veteran halfback insists the gloomy predictions weren’t used as motivation last year and haven’t been raised at Brookvale.
“I’m not being disrespectful, but I don’t follow a whole lot of journos or news articles on socials,” Fogarty said.
“Everyone’s got an opinion, but they don’t see the work that we put in here or understand the type of players that we’ve got here.
“We’ve just got to make sure that we connect here and put the team first and make sure that we look after one another in a football sense.
“Everyone’s going to have an opinion on how I play or what the team does, but the only thing that matters is that our team, our club and our coaching staff are all on the same page and have each other’s backs.”
Manly missed the finals last year and didn’t look great on Sunday in their trial loss to Souths a week after their youngsters proved too good for the Warriors.
While they missed the top eight in 2025, they thrashed eventual champions the Broncos, beat the Storm in Melbourne, cruised past Penrith and smashed the Raiders.
The challenge is beating the teams they are expected to knock off in 2026, with Roosters-bound outside back Reuben Garrick happy to prove people wrong again.
“You’ve got to use it a little for external motivation,” he told the NewsWire.
“But that can’t be your main fuel. Your main fuel is to take a lot of pride in your work, and for us that means representing your jersey to the best of your ability and winning games on the weekend.
“That’s the industry we’re in because you’ve got to win, and we will be winning.
“I know a lot of people are writing us off, but we’re always the underdog here at Manly and we’re never tipped to win anything.
“We love proving people wrong, and I think we’re going to do that this year.”
FINUCANE’S EXPERIENCE ON THE HOGS TOUR
The HOGS National Tour, led by Brad Fittler, kicked off on February 8, with Dale Finucane joining the second leg of the annual event aiming to strengthen connections through rugby league.
From Gunnedah to Bundaberg and Dubbo to Batemans Bay, Brad Fittler and a group of current and former NRL and NRLW players aim to “give young people the chance to play, learn and engage with the greatest game for all”.
Each day starts with a motorbike ride, a trip to a local PCYC club and local business as well as Westpac branches before a clinic is run for budding league players in the afternoon.
For Finucane, the program is especially important to harness the power of rugby league and its ability to bring people together.
“It’s about the community, particularly the Victorian towns that we go through, it’s not rugby league heartland like Country NSW and Queensland,” Finucane told foxsports.com.au as he travelled down the Great Ocean Road.
“It’s about growing rugby league as well and Brad Fittler is a big name who people recognise, and there’s been other rugby league talents involved in this over the years.
“Greg Inglis has been involved more recently, Jada Taylor who plays for the Sharks NRLW team, so having some recognisable faces come through the community to promote rugby league, it’s really about getting out into the community.”
As for some of his best moments on the HOGS tour, with the 2026 edition being his second time taking part, it’s the kids who get a chance to play rugby league for the first time.
“Obviously kids who come down and play and participate in rugby league who generally wouldn’t have, finding out about the fact that it is on,” Finucane said.
“They’re really good moments. We had about 40 kids turn up yesterday to an even down in Warnambool where rugby league is not popular at all.
“It’s growing in Victoria, just seeing kids turn up to somewhere where it’s not their number one sport, it’s quite fulfilling.”
The HOGS tour will cover 7500 kilometres in 2026 across three states.
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