Brett Stewart has been involved with Manly more than 20 years and he says he has never seen a player as mentally resilient as Tom Trbojevic.
Trbojevic will play with painkilling injections and a custom-made guard over his right AC joint when the Sea Eagles take on Canterbury in Sunday’s elimination final.
The gun No.1 has already tested out his shoulder at training and revealed he had required pain-killing injections in his left AC joint most weeks this year.
Stewart, Trbojevic’s legendary fullback predecessor on the northern beaches, won two premierships with some of the toughest to wear the maroon and white, including his brother Glenn, Anthony Watmough, Jamie Lyon and Kieran Foran.
But Stewart, who is now an assistant SG Ball coach at Manly, has never seen anything like Trbojevic’s ability to continually return from injury setbacks.
Tom Trbojevic leaves the field after suffering a serious shoulder injury against the Bulldogs in round 26, the latest in a long line of problems for the star fullback.Credit: Getty
“A lesser man would have thought about giving the game away because of those injuries, especially that hamstring injury Tommy suffered earlier this year,” Stewart said.
“I’ve been at Manly since 2002, that’s 22 years, and I don’t think I’ve seen someone as resilient as Tommy. He’s physically tough, but mentally stronger. The best thing about him is every time he returns from injury, he bounces back quickly.”
If Trbojevic can stay on the field and return to his best during the next four weeks, the Sea Eagles could still trouble the premiership favourites and even win the title from seventh place.
And Stewart spoke for nearly every Manly and NRL fan when he declared: “I’d love to see him put a few games together, four finals, even a season, just so we can see what this bloke can actually do.
“He’s not human. His best football is still ahead of him. He’s played 150 games. He should be closer to around 220 or so games. I still wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up on 300 games.
“Tommy Turbo is an X factor in any team, and will be in a lot of the highlights reels for teams coming up against us in the coming weeks.”
Tom Trbojevic showed how dangerous he can be against the Bulldogs – before it all went wrong again.Credit: Getty
Trbojevic was in brilliant form to the point he had collected four players’ player awards in a row late in the regular season. He was untouchable in attack as the Sea Eagles mounted a late challenge but fell short against the Wests Tigers, then scored a try and ran for more than 160m before coming from the field with a shoulder injury with 16 minutes remaining against the Bulldogs.
The 27-year-old Trbojevic said this week about his latest return: “I’ll get the needle just before the game. It’s nothing out of the ordinary.
“You just want to make sure you’ve got normal function after you get the needle. They [Canterbury] can try and target me – it’s hard to target a fullback. We’re playing a game of footy; I’ll be fine.
“We’ve shown when we’re at our best we can match it with anyone. We just need to be consistent.”
Trbojevic is a big body who attacks both sides of the field at speed. There have been question marks about Trbojevic’s work rate in defence, but Stewart, who was notorious for barking orders and getting his numbers right at the back, said: “Tommy is always one tackle ahead in defence, and doesn’t get the raps he deserves”.
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