I’ve seen a few people on social media talking up the chances of the Manly Sea Eagles in 2024, and honestly I don’t understand why.
The Manly Sea Eagles finished in 12th place in 2023 and made some really curious recruitment decisions over the course of the year.
When is comes down it, there are three main reason why I just don’t rate the Sea Eagles going into this season. So lets get straight into it!
Anthony Seibold
I don’t rate him as a coach at all. He took the Brisbane Broncos from being one of the best young squads seen in years, and coached them to a wooden spoon. That Brisbane Broncos team were statistically one of the worst teams of all time. Look at the turn around as soon as he left. His time at the Broncos can only be described as an absolute disaster.
Seibolds decisions last season in terms of coaching and looking at player retention and recruitment were perplexing at best. I fully expect the Sea Eagles to regress under his coaching.
Tom Trbojevic
A great player and a game breaker, in the regular season anyway. Tom Trbojevic is so good that if he has a great season he can carry the Sea Eagles into the finals.
The thing is, we all know he has terrible injury problems. What are the chances he will make it through the season without missing weeks, or months?
Believe me, I hope he has an injury free season. I love watching him play. I just worry about having to rely on him making it through the season injury free when he is so important to the outcome of the Sea Eagles season.
Luke Brooks
Luke Brooks has played 205 games in the NRL, and not one of those games has been a finals match. Sure, he played for a terrible club, but part of the reason the Wests Tigers were so bad was because of Luke Brooks and his inability to lead a team around the field. A bit of an issue for a halfback…
The Sea Eagles have brought Brooks in to play alongside Dally Cherry-Evans. If the plan is to have him playing five-eight, you now have an undersized five-eight who has major defensive issues. If they brought him in to play at halfback, you’re moving the clubs best player out of position so that Brooks can be your halfback, where we have all seen he just isn’t up to the task.
That isn’t even taking into account that the Sea Eagles paid big money to retain the services of Josh Schuster, who the Sea Eagles insisted on playing at five-eight for most of last season and who was, lets just say, underwhelming.
I wouldn’t be surprised if by round 6 of the NRL season the Luke Brooks experiment is over.
If only the Sea Eagles had a decade worth of Brooks football to take into account to avoid making a bad decision to recruit him…
There Are Some Positives…
I expect Haumole Olakau’atu to have a massive season. I would have selected him in last years New South Wales State Of Origin team in all three games last year. I expect that this year he will be one of the first selected.
Reuben Garrick is a solid first grader who gives his all in every game, and will play any position the coach asks him to. He is such an underrated player for that reason. Every club needs a player like Reuben Garrick.
Ben Trbojevic is a youngster who finally got a taste of first grade football in 2023. I don’t know what these dudes had packed in their school lunches, but they can all play football. I think this season we will see Ben Trbojevic become a really important part of the club. I have a feeling that might be in the centres, but we will wait and see.
I Could Be Totally Wrong!
Look, I know if you’re a Sea Eagles supporter this is the last thing you want to hear as the season approaches, this is just how I feel about where the team stands right now.
The club has a few issues that I think start in management and it’s hard for a team on the field to not have flow on issues that filter down from a bad front office.
The good news is, we don’t decide Rugby League games based on what people think in late January. There is a reason why we still play games.
So let’s see how it all turns out. 🙂
