Life as an NRL haead coach couldn’t have started any better for Manly Sea Eagles mentor Kieran Foran.
After their 38-6 win over the North Queensland Cowboys on Thursday night, many are heaping the praise on Foran and his side, who are 3-0 since the sacking of Anthony Seibold.
Unfortunately, there was some bad news to emerge from the win over the Cowboys with fullback Tom Trbojevic suffering another hamstring injury which could keep him sidelined for some time.
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Manly are now entrenched in the top eight after languishing down the bottom for the first few weeks.
Crucially, all three of those wins have come away from their home.
It now begs the question as to what is so different under the Sea Eagles champion.
Taniela Paseka of the Sea Eagles is tackled during a win over the Cowboys — Manly’s third on the trot under Kieran Foran.Source: Getty Images
Three-time premiership winning halfback Luke Keary believes it’s simply down to standards set from the top, led by Foran.
“They kind of had a way under Siebs (Seibold) where they wanted to cheat their way out sometimes,” Keary told The Late Show with Matty Johns on Thursday.
“And it worked against certain teams, but when you do that, you send a message to your team about… ‘we don’t think we can match other teams in the middle so we’re going to try some trick plays to go our way’.
“The numbers (Taniela) Paseka, (Kobe) Hetherington and even Jake’s (Trbojevic) doing in these last three weeks with Kieran, they double what they did in the first week.”
The numbers don’t lie in terms of what the Manly forward pack has dished up under their new coach.
Across the first three games of the season under former coach Siebold, Paseka averaged 113 run metres a game, Hetherington at 71 and Jake Trbojevic just 30.
On the flip side, in their three games under Foran, Paseka has averaged 162 metres a game, Hetherington at 126 and Trbojevic 56 – despite the latter playing less minutes due to a few in-game injury spells on the sideline.
Outside of the numbers, the increase in output and potency from the Manly pack has been obvious to the eye as they move into their new era.
Jamal Fogarty and Luke Brooks are leading the way for Manly, with the veteran five-eighth a new man.Source: Getty Images
The Foran effect seems to have not stopped there though, with a lot more points and creativity coming from their halves in Luke Brooks and Jamal Fogarty.
Both players came under fire after Manly’s lacklustre start to the season, but are now thriving under the former premiership winning half turned coach.
Another former premiership winner in Matty Johns believes the change in form comes down to what works for the playmakers.
“What was really clear at the start of the game, ‘Foz’ has got ‘Brooksy’ running shapes that suit his game,” Johns added on The Late Show with Matty Johns.
“He (Brooks) was doing a lot of one-on-one short plays which forced playmakers to run, I reckon he found his rhythm off that… Foz simplified the game plan.”
If there was ever a prime example of the change in the way the halves have been playing, it was Brooks’ try in the 66th minute.
His halves partner Fogarty breaking the line with a cheeky grubber kick before teeing up his five-eighth for arguably the try of the night exemplified just how much has changed in the creativity department for the Sea Eagles.
Outside of looking easier on the eye, Manly have scored 118 points across their three games under Foran, as opposed to 60 under Siebold to start the year.
Fogarty on the other hand has six try assists under Foran, compared to just one under Siebold in the same amount of time.
The former Raiders and Titans half also averaging just under 470 kick metres a game over the last three fixtures, while his first three games of the season saw him averaging 359.