NRL 2021: Can Manly star Tom Trbojevic dethrone Brett Stewart as Prince of Brookvale?
Injury cruelled Tom Trbojevic’s 2020 season, but Kieran Foran is tipping big things for the Sea Eagles’ new Prince in 2021.
When Kieran Foran and Tom Trbojevic take to the field together for the first time since 2015 in round one, Manly Sea Eagles fans won’t be able to help but remember the playmaker’s combination with the Prince of Brookvale, fullback Brett Stewart.
Back then Trbojevic was a lanky winger in his first season of NRL football.
Now, Foran believes Trbojevic stands alone as a “special” talent who possesses the kind of ability that separates the fullback from any other player he has taken the field with over the last decade.
“When I left here he’d only just debuted and was playing on the wing and I have watched him closely over the last few years and watched him grow and I have been highly impressed,” Foran said.
“But I think coming here and training with him in the flesh, you see just how impressive he is. He is blowing my mind really.
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“You can just see why he is so vital to this club … so is everyone though everyone plays a role. But every now and then there are just special footballers that come along.
“He’s a phenomenal athlete and he is a phenomenal footballer.”
But does Foran believe Trbojevic can one day dethrone Stewart, who Foran won a premiership with in 2011, as the club’s greatest ever fullback?
“There are different players but they have similar traits in certain areas of their game,” Foran said.
“Tom is a bigger body, Snake’s anticipation was really good.
“It’s too hard to compare … but you get the gist of what I’m saying.
“He’s [Trbojevic] a special footballer.”
Stewart hung up the boots in 2016 after 233 games for the Sea Eagles, where he scored 163 tries and won two premierships.
There is, however, one accolade that Manly halfback Daly Cherry believes Trbojevic can surpass the prolific Stewart.
Cherry-Evans has backed Trbojevic as an early favourite for this year’s Dally M medal, an achievement that eluded Stewart over the course of his 14- year career.
Before succumbing to yet another hamstring injury in round six last year, Trbojevic was leading the Dally M count on nine points alongside Jason Taumalolo.
“He looks good, I feel like every time this year we get excited about how good Tom looks,” Cherry-Evans said.
“He was my pick for the Dally M last year had he played a full season.
“He’ll be my pick again.
“There are some proper quality fullbacks in the game right now. He’s right up there.
“No one more than himself wants to play a full season this year and as a teammate I hope he is out there as well.”
Foran and Trbojevic have spent the pre-season sowing the seeds of their attacking combination.
The duo spent five days together in December under the care of Dr David Opar, a hamstring injury specialist at the Australian Catholic University.
“It was good because I had never really spent a lot of time with him Tom when I left the club he was just coming through,” Foran said.
“We got down there and spent five days together, getting coffees and feeds together and I got to really understand and know him as a bloke.
“He’s intelligent and I think that comes out in his footy.”
Foran, who is no stranger to injury himself, also revealed he had supported Trbojevic through a nasty run of injuries, which included a shoulder issue, over the last 12 months.
“I grabbed his number off Cherry [Evans] and as he was going through his injury setback. I flicked him a message to reach out,” Foran said.
“We’ve been going back and forth keeping each other updated, talking about the mental side of what it takes.”
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