Why Jake is man to lead Manly

[Mitch]

This is a little snippet from Josh Massoud's 7th Tackle column. Just another tick in the box for Jake T.

Tackle Three – Why Jake is man to lead Manly

Attention, Sea Eagles fans. Sit back and enjoy this one. It’s one of our favourite anecdotes of 2016.

Way back in Round 11 Manly travelled to Cronullaand, despite losing, the underdogs were far from disgraced.

After fulltime opposing young guns Tom Trbojevicand Jack Bird caught up on the field for a chinwag.

The pair knew one another from junior representative teams. Their banter was lighthearted – and that didn’t sit well with a certain devastated Sea Eagle; none other than Tom’s brother Jake.

The annoyed older sibling marched across, grabbed ‘little’ Tom and dragged him into the losing sheds.

Although he’s only 22, Jake Trbojevic is decidedly old school. He loathes the friendly chit chat and high-fiving between rival players, an exchange that’s become almost ritualistic in the modern-day game.

Instead, he takes every loss hard and has been spotted in tears more than once after Manly finished on the wrong end of the scoreboard.

We thought such a level of personal investment had disappeared beneath an avalanche of selfies and Pokemon addicts.

The fact Trbojevic displays it as such a young age makes him a leading contender to assume the captaincy from Jamie Lyon next year.

 

[Turbo]

It's has to be Jake Turbo, he is manly all the way will never leave and is such a great bloke

 

[Killer03]

Jake is a great choice for the captaincy next year.

 

[HappilyManly]

I loved last game's half time chat as the Teams were leaving the field.

Jake was so polite and chatty, it looked like he was just walking around the Northern Beaches cafe strip

 

[Heisenberg]

He will be a One club player. Gotta be captain next year.

 

[The Screaming Eagles]

I discussed this on my podcast last week. I think we should do what the Cowboys have done, co-captains DCE and Jake. You have DCE captain of the backs and Jake looks after the forwards.

 

[Fluffy]

Only Jake, DCE and Jamie B are possible candidates. I guess Myles with his previous experience but a no from me.

Given 2 are forwards then DCE will be making decisions at times without the captain so at a minimum vice captain or dual captaincy.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Def NO to Myles.

The other three are all Manly!!

Nuff said.

 

[globaleagle]

Someone mention Pokemon?

Probably co-captains is my guess. Jake T and DCE.

 

[Lord Eagleton]

22 years old though. Bit young....
However he is clearly mature, a hard worker and captain material. Its just the young age bit that bothers me. Ideally i would love to see him captain at 24/25. Maybe it will have to be at 22

 

[mosto]

I'm really not a fan of the co-captain idea. I'd like to see Jake given the job with Cherry taking over if and when Jake is off the field. Cherry will obviously be running the plays etc, but just leave him to concentrate on that without worrying about the captaincy. I think Jake would earn some respect from referee's which, to be honest, we haven't really earned for a few years now. There was a stage earlier this year when Jake was acting captain and he approached the ref in the same manner Killer, and basically all captains do, ranting and raving. The ref, rightly, said "Don't approach me like that!" and went to walk away. Jake stopped, and politely replied, "Sorry sir, but may I ask a question?" You could see the ref was stunned to be spoken to so politely. He answered Jake's question (not to his satisfaction, but he was never going change his decision), and I noticed he was happy to listen to Jake anytime he approached him after that.

 

[TagMonster]

No reason why Jake can't be captain at 22. He is already the emotional leader in the forwards. He has become the player the team turns to for a big play. The Kiwi and Souths games had several occasions of this. The charge down is obvious but also causing errors through text book tackles while defending the line.

Having him and DCE as Co-Captains is the way forward. Have Jake as the primary so that DCE can organise while Jake is speaking with the refs. If Jake is off DCE will take control. Both are polite and well spoken so would likely get on well with the refs.

 

[manlyfan76]

Jake us already our leader in many ways, why not call him captain as well.

 

[maxta]

Jake has that "Old School" tag.
Call me sentimental, but I love that stuff - loyalty & that will to win for the club he loves...99% of players lack.
Even his contact is "Old school" - the Burgess boys found that out Monday night spilling the ball through sheer impact to the ribs, not that modern wrestling BS....so lucky to have these boys at Manly- awesome down to earth people who have a genuine passion for being Manly players...good as it gets really.

 

[Eagles2nv]

I think DCE probably would have been offered captaincy as part of that lifetime deal.

That said there is no reason he cant co captian with Jake. Jake has all the right ingredients to be a manly captain.

 

[NYEagle]

Imagine if we had Jake and David Klemmer at Manly.
These guys epitomise what rugby league is all about. Single focussed human beings who play footy like it matters.
Jake is rapidly becoming my favourite Sea Eagle. I can get a little insane watching Manly play,and I know if I wasn't the wimp that I am and had a harder skull I'd be just like him and out there on the field.
NYEagle

 

[CBreeagles]

Bit offtopic but I liked what Baz said in the presser on Monday about the culture and Jake, Tom, Buhrer, and Lussick.

 

[Clay]

Aslong as it doesn't affect his on field performance and that he wants to do it, then I have no problem with his age.
Would there been a younger permanent captain since Cayless?

 

[Lyonstomenzies]

When the voting for the next captaincy comes up at the end the year how do we all vote?

Surely TB and @Dan will provide Silvertails with the correct voting structures? Once the votes are collected are they presented to the board or just the Penns/ZTH.

My precious vote will most definetly go to Jake. "If your good enough your old enough".

I think DCE not being captain would be better for his game. That way he could concentrate slaying the defence with tricky runs, passes and kicks.