Trbojevic ready to roll in new era at Manly
SEA Eagles superstar Tom Trbojevic has declared himself fit, ready and committed to start the 2023 season – a revelation coming on the same day as Manly formally moved on from the Des Hasler era.
Trbojevic attended day one of Manly’s off-season training at the club’s Narrabeen headquarters along with new assistant coaches Shane Flanagan and Jim Dymock.
Trbojevic and brother Jake endured a challenging off-season with their manager, Paul Sutton, just last month claiming the pair felt the club was “imploding” after Hasler was sacked and how the “conflict and internal rumblings” had “taken a toll”. There were even suggestions Tom could seek a release.
Manly fans were deeply relieved when Trbojevic returned to Manly training on Monday morning and met up with Flanagan and Dymock.
And the news improved further with Trbojevic revealing he had fully recovered from a shoulder injury sustained in May and would be available for round 1 against Canterbury on March 4.
Trbojevic told teammates he would “be there” to start next season and “could play in a month if there were games”.
Dymock and Flanagan arrived for training around 7am on Monday to start mending a broken club. The pair will take over off-season training with head coach Anthony Seibold still in Britain helping with coach Eddie Jones’s English rugby union side. It is understood Seibold held a Zoom meeting with Manly players around 9am.
Manly has endured a horror few months with the pride jersey fiasco all but ending their season, Hasler being sacked and speculation about the Trbojevic brothers. The first steps to rebuilding the club began on Monday.
Full-time squad members not competing in the World Cup returned to training, including Trbojevic, Lachlan Croker, Reuben Garrick, Josh Schuster, Morgan Harper and Brad Parker.