Buzz’s highlights, lowlights: Tom Trbojevic speaks out after rare off night

A recently retired player who has earned five times more than the average wage earner over the past decade is complaining he needs a loan to pay his Covid breach fines. HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS.

It has been the talk of football circles all weekend why champion fullback Tom Trbojevic had such an extremely rare night off against Melbourne Storm.

And he was the first to admit it when we phoned the Sea Eagles superstar to find out why.

Unlike some others, Turbo is not one to make excuses.

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“I didn’t get involved in the game enough,” he said. “It comes back to me.

“It’s something I’ve got to do better this week against the Roosters.

Manly fullback Tom Trbojevic had a rare off night against Melbourne. Picture: NRL Imagery

“It was the way the game went. We didn’t have enough quality footy and it was hard to inject myself. You’ve got to win the field-position battles to play an expansive style of footy.

“Playing out of your own end and defending a lot … you don’t get those opportunities.

“In saying that, I’ve got to find another way to do it.”

The raging hot favourite for the Dally M player-of-the-year is now focused on the Sydney Roosters and fellow champion James Tedesco, who had another blinder against the Titans.

“It’s nice to even be rated alongside such an outstanding player,” Turbo said. “He’s such a quality footballer and he’s had an exceptional year.

“Just playing alongside him at Origin level is really special. He’s a good mate as well. I know our defence will have to be spot on to try to contain him.”

Tom Trbojevic following defeat (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

Tom Trbojevic was well-contained by the Storm. Picture: NRL Photos

On Manly’s performance against the Storm, Turbo says Manly let themselves down.

That they played as poorly as Storm played well.

“We made too many mistakes and played at the wrong end of the field,” he said.

“That hurt us a lot. They had about 60 per cent of possession. You’re not going to beat a quality side like Melbourne like that.

“Still, we know we’re a much better side than we showed on Friday night and you’ll hopefully see that next weekend when we get another chance.”

ARE MANLY FLAT TRACK BULLIES?

NRL teams need a tough build-up to prepare for finals football.

They need to experience the intensity and punishing power of the big end-of-season games.

This is one area where the Manly Sea Eagles have missed out.

Their draw was too soft and they became flat track bullies in the run home to the finals.

Nine of their last 12 games were against teams that missed the top eight.

They played the Cowboys, Bulldogs and Raiders twice, then the Dragons, Sharks and Wests Tigers.

This is why they looked so far out of their depth against Melbourne Storm.

It’s like they’ve gone from Kembla maiden to a Cox Plate, particularly in a year where the class difference is so enormous between the top and bottom eight.

The Sea Eagles weren’t as finely tuned because of the soft build-up.

There will be enormous interest around the team that Des Hasler chooses for the Roosters game.

Hasler is under enormous pressure from his senior players to bring big Moses Suli into the starting line up in place of either Morgan Harper or Brad Parker.

Poor Harper had a shocker against Melbourne Storm, missing six tackles and making a handful of ball-handling errors.

Tom Trbojevic man-handled by the Storm. Picture: NRL Photos

HIGHLIGHT

South Sydney’s Adam Reynolds and Cody Walker showed up Freddy Fittler and Brandy Alexander in the boldest of terms, proving they should have played at halfback and five-eighth for the NSW Blues in Origin III ahead of Jack Wighton and Mitchell Moses.

LOWLIGHT

Josh Dugan complained that he would need a bank loan to pay his $70,000 in fines for breaching Covid protocols. Here is a man who has earned an estimated $6 million from rugby league over the last decade. That’s $5 million more than the average wage earner over the same period of time. For the last 12 months he has been on $20,000-A-WEEK, the poor bugger. Give me a break.

WOODS’ LIFELINE

Billionaire publican Arthur Laundy is a close friend of former Kangaroos and Blues front-rower Aaron Woods. He even rang Tim Sheens in the north of England last week to try to get Woods a start at his old club, the Wests Tigers.

BIG-TIME POWER

There is an old theory about big men winning big games. Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Tom Burgess and Christian Welch were the best front-rowers in week one of the finals. JWH had 19 hit-ups for a game high 177 metres. Burgess ran 198 metres from 20 hit-ups.

OFF NIGHT

At the same time, James Fisher-Harris had a shocker for the Penrith Panthers and looked like he was playing injured. He missed five tackles and made only 70 metres against the Rabbitohs.

SPOTTED

Paul Vaughan has had a tough year but the former Dragon has something to smile about following the birth of his second child with wife Elle. Vaughan will join Canterbury next season.

Paul Vaughan and his growing family.

SPOTTED

The joys of live TV … injured Parramatta Eels star Reed Mahoney didn’t know he was ‘on air’ when Channel 9 crossed to his Gold Coast apartment via Facetime for his comments on the semi-final. He thought he was talking to a producer when asked ‘What do you think of the first 30 minutes’ and he replied ‘f..ked’ which went to air.

SHOOSH

Wayne Bennett has spoken about the lack of confidentiality at NRL headquarters which probably explains why CEO Andrew Abdo has an inquiry under way into the leaking of sensitive information to various media outfits in recent months.

CORRECT CALL

Lucky the NRL independent commission ignored the RLPA and international league chairman Troy Grant and refused to send players to England for the World Cup, especially when Covid is so bad in the UK that the England v India fifth cricket Test had to be abandoned.

HOME MADE STARS

We’re always talking up the Penrith Panthers and the size of their junior league yet the Rabbitohs knocked them off with six of their own local products — Blake Taaffe, Alex Johnston, Campbell Graham, Cameron Murray, Adam Reynolds and Keaon Koloamatangi.

360 VIEW

Catch you Monday night on NRL 360 on Fox League at 6.30pm with Yvonne Sampson, Paul Kent and James Hooper to discuss the big issues from the opening weekend of finals football.