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From today's SMH, enjoy.
Manly superstar Tom Trbojevic has spoken of the heartbreak of losing his grandmother just a day before his five-star Townsville theatrics.
Trbojevic scored three tries, ran for 280m with 20 tackle busts and ended the Dally M debate once and for all on Saturday night against the North Queensland Cowboys.
“But I found out my dad’s mum passed away a day earlier,” Trbojevic told the Herald. “I was obviously close with her, but she had a good innings. She was going to 98 in November. She died peacefully in her sleep on Thursday, which is all you can ask for.
“Obviously it’s hard when you’re up here and you can’t get back to say goodbye. A lot of players have been in a similar situation.
“She was a big fan of ours. She was Yugoslavian, she didn’t understand footy, but she’d watch the TV and hear people yell ‘Trbojevic’, so she’d love it. We’ve been up here a couple of months, so it would have been about three months ago when we last saw her.
“She was definitely on mine and Jake’s mind.”
Trbojevic, his brother Jake and Ben will not be able to attend the funeral for Dragica, or “baba”. The trio’s parents, John and Melissa, have also been shut out of Queensland because of the hard border closures and will not have the chance to witness Tom, Jake and four-game rookie Ben potentially help Manly to their first premiership in a decade.
Sea Eagles players praised the Trbojevics for being able to produce such special performances with heavy hearts.
Skipper Daly Cherry-Evans spotted the pair wearing the black arm bands before kick-off and said: “It goes to show how much they love the game. While some people might have their immediate family here [in Queensland], we are still away from a lot of loved ones.
“They’ve experienced the harder side of being away from home and family, and as a teammate you feel for them and appreciate they can still go out and play their best.”
Five-eighth Kieran Foran added of Tom: “He is a true professional, whatever was going on for him internally during that moment, he was able to realise that for 80 minutes he needed to produce some of his best footy, and as he has done so many times he did that, even under that sort of duress.
“It speaks volumes of where he is at, not only as a player but a person. He’s selfless, he had to a job for his footy side, and he did it.”
Trbojevic looms as Manly’s September X-factor and the last time he came up against Melbourne, Storm coach Craig Bellamy quipped the only way of stopping him was with a shotgun”.
The Sea Eagles pushed the Storm deep into the second half before they lost 26-16. It is the only game Trbojevic failed to run 100m, but he did set up a couple of tries and proved a handful.
Storm skipper Dale Finucane knows what Trbojevic is capable of having played Origin III with him earlier this year, and said knowing what “Turbo” would do and stopping him from doing it wert stressed there was so many other stars in the Manly pack they could not ignore.
“Their form heading into the finals has been outstanding and having Tommy firing for them for the majority of the year helps,” Finucane said.
“To see the amount of tries and involvement he’s had the last few games, I’m sure the teams have previewed the shapes and where he will pop up, but it’s another thing actually stopping that. We’ll do the best we can.”
Manly superstar Tom Trbojevic has spoken of the heartbreak of losing his grandmother just a day before his five-star Townsville theatrics.
Trbojevic scored three tries, ran for 280m with 20 tackle busts and ended the Dally M debate once and for all on Saturday night against the North Queensland Cowboys.
“But I found out my dad’s mum passed away a day earlier,” Trbojevic told the Herald. “I was obviously close with her, but she had a good innings. She was going to 98 in November. She died peacefully in her sleep on Thursday, which is all you can ask for.
“Obviously it’s hard when you’re up here and you can’t get back to say goodbye. A lot of players have been in a similar situation.
“She was a big fan of ours. She was Yugoslavian, she didn’t understand footy, but she’d watch the TV and hear people yell ‘Trbojevic’, so she’d love it. We’ve been up here a couple of months, so it would have been about three months ago when we last saw her.
“She was definitely on mine and Jake’s mind.”
Trbojevic, his brother Jake and Ben will not be able to attend the funeral for Dragica, or “baba”. The trio’s parents, John and Melissa, have also been shut out of Queensland because of the hard border closures and will not have the chance to witness Tom, Jake and four-game rookie Ben potentially help Manly to their first premiership in a decade.
Sea Eagles players praised the Trbojevics for being able to produce such special performances with heavy hearts.
Skipper Daly Cherry-Evans spotted the pair wearing the black arm bands before kick-off and said: “It goes to show how much they love the game. While some people might have their immediate family here [in Queensland], we are still away from a lot of loved ones.
“They’ve experienced the harder side of being away from home and family, and as a teammate you feel for them and appreciate they can still go out and play their best.”
Five-eighth Kieran Foran added of Tom: “He is a true professional, whatever was going on for him internally during that moment, he was able to realise that for 80 minutes he needed to produce some of his best footy, and as he has done so many times he did that, even under that sort of duress.
“It speaks volumes of where he is at, not only as a player but a person. He’s selfless, he had to a job for his footy side, and he did it.”
Trbojevic looms as Manly’s September X-factor and the last time he came up against Melbourne, Storm coach Craig Bellamy quipped the only way of stopping him was with a shotgun”.
The Sea Eagles pushed the Storm deep into the second half before they lost 26-16. It is the only game Trbojevic failed to run 100m, but he did set up a couple of tries and proved a handful.
Storm skipper Dale Finucane knows what Trbojevic is capable of having played Origin III with him earlier this year, and said knowing what “Turbo” would do and stopping him from doing it wert stressed there was so many other stars in the Manly pack they could not ignore.
“Their form heading into the finals has been outstanding and having Tommy firing for them for the majority of the year helps,” Finucane said.
“To see the amount of tries and involvement he’s had the last few games, I’m sure the teams have previewed the shapes and where he will pop up, but it’s another thing actually stopping that. We’ll do the best we can.”
