Sign up now!!!<\/a><\/p>\nLuke Brooks during his debut.Source: News Limited<\/p>\n
Brooks said he still holds high admiration for the Tigers, its staff and players, and believes with a full roster back on deck they will continue to flourish in 2026.<\/p>\n
Looking back on his chapter at Leichardt, Brooks believes years of scrutiny have helped build him into the player and person he has become at Manly, where a new roster and surrounding players has revitalised his standing in the game.<\/p>\n
In a strange way, so many years under the microscope has also hardened Brooks during recent scrutiny, such as Seibold\u2019s highly publicised Manly exit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re one of the higher paid players and you\u2019re not winning games and probably not performing as good as you want to be, that\u2019s when you start copping it,\u201d Brooks said. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut I definitely think that\u2019s built resilience, and I know a lot of players would have gone through the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you have to have resilience to have a long career in the NRL. For me personally, it has helped me in the long run. At the start of this year when we were copping it from the media and from a lot of people about our start, it wasn\u2019t anything new to me. I knew how to deal with it, which was handy for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blues star watches on at Origin training | 01:16<\/p>\n
BROOKS\u2019 NEW LEASE OF LIFE UNDER FORAN<\/p>\n
Now in his third season at Manly, and after another dominant performance against his former club last weekend, Brooks believes he has unleashed the shackles to play with the freedom and expression he has long been touted for.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going out there and playing footy, and just enjoying it,\u201d Brooks said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not having too many worries and overthinking things. I\u2019m going into games confident in the team and what we\u2019re doing. That gives me confidence in my game as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I didn\u2019t have a licence beforehand to play heads-up footy, I think our defence has given us more opportunities versus how we started the year \u2013 we\u2019re not on the back foot all the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got to give credit to the players around more, our forward pack has been outstanding. They create the opportunities for me to run the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Less than eight weeks after Seibold was sensationally stood down as coach, the Sea Eagles have transformed from the seventh-worst NRL defence to the best in the league \u2013 leaking just 100 points during Foran\u2019s tenure to edge out Penrith (110 points), the Warriors (114 points) and Roosters (116 points) over the same period.<\/p>\n
Not surprisingly, Brooks is a huge advocate for Foran at Manly, as noise from key players continues to mount over him taking over as full-time head coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d love him to be the head coach,\u201d injured fullback Trbojevic told SEN Radio this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a big job for Kieran to step into, and the boys have just responded to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI speak on behalf of everyone at the club that we\u2019d love to have him there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kieran Foran has got the most out of Luke Brooks. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
It would be easy to draw the conclusion that Foran occupies the Sea Eagles\u2019 missing chess piece following the side\u2019s seeming overnight success. While the 35-year-old has implemented some changes since taking over from Seibold, Brooks points to him inheriting the same roster and coming in during the middle of a season as key impediments for wholesale changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the course of the year we\u2019ve found what works for us as a team and really honed in on that stuff. That\u2019s helped my game, I feel,\u201d Brooks reflected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a few changes here and there but obviously every coach wants to do things the way they want to do things. Naturally when there\u2019s a change there will be a flow-on effect around the club, but not drastic ones. It\u2019s hard once you come in during the season, you can\u2019t make too many changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoaching-wise, he keeps it simple for us and he goes after the things that we know works for us. That\u2019s probably been the main thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Analyst and former Manly assistant Ennis sees plenty of parallels in Brooks and Foran as players, and isn\u2019t surprised that Brooks is flourishing with Foran at the helm.<\/p>\n
Ennis said Brooks is making the most of his combination with Fogarty, as well as the faster speed of play in 2026. <\/p>\n
Souths throw support behind Jai Arrow | 12:49<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a very instinctual half, but when things get quick and when the ruck gets quick and there\u2019s momentum, he loves to get over the advantage line and run the footy,\u201d Ennis told foxsports.com.au.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s where the game\u2019s at right now, Luke\u2019s playing some wonderful footy and it\u2019s great to watch. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhere the competition is at with interpretations and rule changes, that has brought out the best in Luke\u2019s game and suited Luke\u2019s game. He\u2019s a great runner of the footy and he\u2019s really dangerous down short sides.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than anything, though, Ennis says Cherry-Evans\u2019 departure from the club has imbued Brooks with additional input and freedom in attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me the move for Luke Brooks has been a great one, I thought he formed a nice combination with Daly Cherry-Evans and very quickly a great combination on that left-hand side with Ben Trbojevic and Tolutau Koula that\u2019s now a couple of years in,\u201d Ennis explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of Luke\u2019s respect for Daly and how dominant and successful Daly had been at Manly, Luke combined really nicely but at times probably sat back to see what Daly was doing first before commanding the footy at times. Whereas now, I feel like Jamal Fogarty and Luke are very much an even share of possession.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Luke has always been at his best when he\u2019s running the footy, particularly down short sides and shorter field positions. Kieran was a great short side player, and you can definitely see that Luke is taking more short sides and getting flatter on the ruck and running the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brooks is thriving at Manly. (Photo by Jeremy Ng\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
THE JOEY WALSH EFFECT AND WHAT COMES NEXT FOR BROOKS<\/p>\n
Although Manly lost one of its own with the departure of long-time playmaker Daly Cherry-Evans at the end of last year, the side\u2019s halfback stocks remain strong \u2013 and looking to the future, the signs are promising.<\/p>\n
Young gun half Joey Walsh deputised brilliantly at halfback earlier this year when Fogarty was forced out of two games with injury. And although Brooks can see elements of his own journey in the 20-year-old coming through the ranks, he believes Walsh is nicely poised for a strong NRL career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s similar to what happened with me. Although I think the young kids are a bit different these days, they\u2019re a lot more confident and they know how to deal with this stuff. But if he ever needed advice I\u2019d be willing to help him,\u201d Brooks said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought Joey played really well those two games. He\u2019s obviously not lacking confidence, for him to come in it was just another game. I was really happy with how he played. The most pleasing thing for me is how well he defended. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a tough assignment against Penrith, he was marking up against Isaiah Papali\u2019i and the next week was against Xavier Willison. There\u2019s two big back rowers continually running at him and I thought he really held his own. We know what he can do with the ball but I thought defensively he was outstanding<\/p>\n
\u201cIn that last game against the Broncos he had some nice touches. Obviously it\u2019s tough for him to play that well and to go back to NSW Cup but he\u2019s going to have a big future at the Manly club, and I\u2019m sure that if the time comes this year he\u2019ll be ready to go again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emerging Manly playmaker Joey Walsh. Pic: NRLSource: Supplied<\/p>\n
As for Brooks, he believes he still has some strong playing years ahead of him. He is off-contract at Manly at the end of next season but currently holds a desire to continue in the NRL thereafter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t thought about things too much but I\u2019ll see how I am, how the body is. But the desire is to keep playing, and right now I feel like I could,\u201d Brooks said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat would be the plan, to keep playing as long as possible and until my body can\u2019t keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps the best barometer for Brooks is how he feels off the field. Now a father of three, he reckons this season marks one of his most enjoyable in the NRL \u2013 and there\u2019s an argument to say it\u2019s showing in his performances.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely up there. I feel like I\u2019m going into the games feeling confident we\u2019re going to win and backing our team. It\u2019s a different sort of feeling, you\u2019ve just got confidence that you go out there and you believe in what you\u2019re doing,\u201d Brooks said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a good feeling going into every game. Obviously you\u2019re not always going to win but if you\u2019re going into the game believing that you can win, you\u2019re going to win more than you lose.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me it\u2019s just made me not overthink things. I\u2019m getting to the games and enjoying it. Once we get out there it\u2019s kind of like it\u2019s fun with the way we\u2019re playing<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess it is definitely up there with the happiest I\u2019ve been.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They are the story of 2026. Under interim Kieran Foran, the Sea Eagles have gone from wooden spoon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-685922","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\/685922","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=685922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779017096_680_poster-fallback.png\"\/)