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\n Good to be back: Tom Trbojevic with wife Kristi after his comeback game in Newcastle.
\n \u00a9Shane Myers
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Tom Trbojevic\u2019s return has come at exactly the right time for Manly, with the Sea Eagles skipper back on deck as they prepare for the two biggest games of their season.<\/p>\n
After helping his team snap a six-game losing streak with a win over the Knights, Trbojevic has given the Sea Eagles renewed belief heading into the final two rounds, even if their top-eight hopes hang by a thread.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first part of the assignment is Friday’s clash with the Dragons at 4 Pines Park before travelling to Auckland in Round 27 to face the Warriors.<\/p>\n
The ninth-placed Sea Eagles know they\u00a0must win both games and then rely on results elsewhere to sneak into the top eight. Otherwise it’s no finals for a second year running.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll we can control is these two games of footy,\u201d Trbojevic said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, we have put ourselves in this situation and it\u2019s disappointing considering where we were.<\/p>\n
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Knights v Sea Eagles \u2013 Round 25, 2026<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, we have two games of footy left and we need to win both.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old pulled up well from his first game back after a hamstring injury, playing a key role in Manly\u2019s 44-24 win over the Knights.<\/p>\n
\u201cPulled up good,\u201d Trbojevic said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was good to get back out there and get the two points.\u201d<\/p>\n
His return has provided a timely boost for a Sea Eagles side that looked destined for finals oblivion after six losses in a row between Round 18 and 24.<\/p>\n
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\n Good to be back: Tom Trbojevic with wife Kristi after his comeback game in Newcastle.
\n \u00a9Shane Myers
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Manly had enjoyed a promising start under Kieran Foran, but a mounting injury toll to key players disrupted their momentum.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, with their captain back and just two games remaining, Trbojevic believes there is still plenty of good footy to play.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we are at our best, we are a really good footy side,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been periods this year that we have been so far away from that. There\u2019s too big a gap from our best and our worst.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall this year we are really growing as a side.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo games to go to continue to do that and, if the stars align, we\u2019ll see where we are at.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sea Eagles also received another boost against Newcastle, with Josh Feledy making the most of his opportunity after replacing the injured Tolu Koula.<\/p>\n
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Feledy finds the line<\/p>\n
The young centre scored a hat-trick and could be the attacking difference Manly has needed, as he prepares to line up in the starting side against the Dragons.<\/p>\n
\u201cFoz has really simplified it: prepare like you are going to play,\u201d Feledy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to go out there with a good mindset and we need to win both games, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Trbojevic\u2019s return has come at exactly the right time for Manly, with the Sea Eagles skipper back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-869573","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\/869573","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=869573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}