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A devastating ball-runner on the edge and equally instrumental in defence, as shown by his tackle on Dylan Walker, which saw him leave the field, the back-rower has turned into one of the elite forwards in the NRL.<\/p>\n
Continually delivering consistent showings, he had arguably had his best match of this year\u2019s campaign, which saw him finish with over 200 running metres, seven tackles, four offloads and 14 tackles.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been unbelievable all year. Haumole is such a special player. I can\u2019t speak highly enough of this guy,\u201d Foran said after the Sea Eagles won their first match at home this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the sky\u2019s the limit for him, I honestly do, as a footballer. I think he\u2019s just got something that not many players have got and you see that in his performances.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just got to keep doing what he\u2019s doing because when he\u2019s carrying the footy for us like that and he\u2019s going after the game defensively like that, we\u2019re going to be in the contest more times than not. <\/p>\n
\u201cHis performances at the moment are very specials and we absolutely love what he\u2019s bringing to the table at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Da Silva binned for reckless tackle | 00:34<\/p>\n
Representing the NSW Blues in two matches during the 2024 State of Origin series, Foran urged selectors to pick him for this year\u2019s series and believes he has all the qualities to make the squad.<\/p>\n
This comes as Jacob Preston has been pressing his case for Origin selection at the Canterbury Bulldogs.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, incumbent squad members Angus Crichton (Roosters), Hudson Young (Raiders) and Liam Martin (Panthers) will also be under consideration.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout a doubt (he should be picked for the NSW Blues). In my opinion, I don\u2019t think anyone\u2019s (better than him in his position),\u201d Foran said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s great back-rower\u2019s here in our game, there\u2019s no doubt about that. I\u2019ve been doing it for a long time but Haumole\u2019s a special player.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo in my opinion, without a doubt but I\u2019m not a selector.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pictured is Haumole Olakau’atu at a Manly Sea Eagles NRL team training session held at the NRL Centre of Excellence at Sydney Olympic Park. Picture: Richard DobsonSource: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
The Manly Sea Eagles interim coach continued, \u201cHe\u2019s a different player than what he was four or five years ago when he came in. He\u2019s growing his game each and every year, but you\u2019re just seeing a real mature guy now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re seeing a back-rower who\u2019s sort of 27 and played 115-odd games. He\u2019s probably realised just how damaging he can be and for Haumole it\u2019s just about having that internal belief.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s such a humble guy. He doesn\u2019t want the external accolades. He doesn\u2019t want all the stuff that comes with it but insdie he just needs to know how good he can be.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s playing like that. If he\u2019s doing that for us we\u2019re in with a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Da Silva binned for reckless tackle | 00:34<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s come leaps and bounds. His leadership has been unreal. He\u2019s just going after the contest,\u201d stand-in captain Jake Trbojevic added.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just said 21 carries, you know what I mean? He just wants it. That\u2019s what we want as need a leader like that and he\u2019s doing a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manly Sea Eagles interim coach Kieran Foran had nothing but praise for back-rower Haumole Olakau\u2019atu after he delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-631895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}