Jake T.

[BOZO]

Trbojevic’s turbulent form

The form of Origin-winning Blues captain Jake Trbojevic is causing concern among NSW Rugby League power brokers as attention turns towards this year’s series.

Trbojevic is too tough to justifiably be called rugby league’s version of Bambi but in terms of being rugby league’s nicest man, it’s a fair description.

Whether or not to shoot Bambi is the difficult decision new Blues coach Laurie Daley is faced with. It’s his first big call.

It’s easy to forget that Trbojevic led the Blues to their incredible series win last year.

Michael Maguire said Trbojevic was the glue that kept the team together and his leadership off the field was invaluable. He was Maguire’s version of passionate 1980s leader Steve Mortimer.

On top of that, the decision to name Trbojevic as captain was a masterstroke from Maguire

Trbojevic bought into everything Maguire was selling. That included holding a baseball bat in the post-game celebrations as a tribute to the famous Maguire act of taking a baseball bat into the Rabbitohs dressing room.

Trbojevic would know he is not a lock to make the Blues side. He needs a month of strong form to convince Daley and others that he is ready to lead NSW into battle.

There is no more popular team person than Trbojevic, and he’s also a favourite with fans across the game.

But he needs to show more potency in attack. What helped Trbojevic last year was that the Blues had Cameron Murray and Isaah Yeo in their squad. It allowed Trbojevic to spend longer off the field after he’d helped soften up the Queenslanders.

Murray is missing, meaning Yeo will need to play a different role this year. If fit, Yeo is also an easy choice as captain with halfback Nathan Cleary another obvious strong option. Yeo is Australia’s captain and Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga raves about his leadership.

In an ideal world, Trbojevic will hit top form and make Daley’s choice easy. It’s known the Blues coach is a massive fan of the Manly fan favourite. And given NSW are holders of the Origin shield, it will be difficult to dump their captain.

Expect this situation to remain a major storyline leading into Origin.

Danny Weirdler

The Moral of the story here is
The Affect that Competent Coaches have on their players
The ability to Get the Best out of them

But it also could be the case that Jake is running out of Juice
He is slowing down and being slower has an impact both on a players attacking and defensive capabilities . This has been evident from Jake in recent games
The thing is Jake has another year to run or shall we say jog on this contract
Another year and another yard slower and in the fast pace of the game it seems like it would be game over for him or Perhaps a Steve Menzies trip to Super League .
But Jake has the final say . He will write his own story

 

[The better Robbo]

Jake is so far out of form, I think Nevale would offer more to our team and hes on 1/5 of the money.

 

[Budgie]

Jake's attack is as inconsistent as the team but his defence is still the cement of the forwards. Pretty sure Cronulla didn't score until he was off the field. Without Croker's 40 plus tackles a game, Jake has been the only one holding our woeful defence.

 

[bob dylan]

It would be a massive risk not to pick him, especially without Murray.

But it would be a massive risk to pick him.

The other problem is Yeo, who is not exactly in career best form either. Of course his spot isnt under question, but make no mistake he will be picked on 2024 form.

 

[silver]

Sadly Jake is now redundant. Offers nothing in attack which is required in a modern day 13

 

[Waz13]

Jake is a tough watch these days, that’s for sure.

 

[Jimmie]

I watched the game again today and whilst I agree Jake offers little in attack he does hit hard in defence.Have a close look at the way some of the players he tackles get up and their body language after they have played the ball. They look like they have had the wind knocked out of them.

 

[Dion Johnson]

He does a fair bit of work off the ball Jake, looking at his last three games he has only made a total of 33 metres post contact in three games, that stat is not good enough for first grade and definitely wouldn’t be origin worthy.

It’s not only Laurie Daley that needs to make a big call, there will be pressure on Seibold if Jake doesn’t return to form.

 

[LeonardCohen]

The Jake and Tom situation is devastating for Manly fans. I remember 2017, we made the finals and started to show something. Tom had the world at his feet and Jake was offloading and ball playing and I remember thinking a premiership with these two at the helm was inevitable. Here we are 8 years later and suddenly Jake's best is well behind him and Tom is completely broken. Very sad.

 

[Rafferty]

The Jake and Tom situation is devastating for Manly fans. I remember 2017, we made the finals and started to show something. Tom had the world at his feet and Jake was offloading and ball playing and I remember thinking a premiership with these two at the helm was inevitable. Here we are 8 years later and suddenly Jake's best is well behind him and Tom is completely broken. Very sad.

And a few weeks back Manly we’re openly talking about extending them along with Ben long term, your right it’s very sad, but surely that can’t happen.