Turbo Tom: The walking cliche who could kill Queensland

NSW star Tom Trbojevic has uncluttered his mind and unlocked his game as he prepares to torment Queensland

Interviewing Tom Trbojevic these days comes with a warning.

“He has become a cliche,” NSW coach Brad Fittler says with a laugh.

“I think that is what happens – he is learning well, why not be humble? The more humble he is, he tries to push all the [adulation] on everyone else.

“It is quite embarrassing interviewing him. It is a cliche-a-thon. It is just dull. He has become very boring. But he has everyone talking.”

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Boring? Surely not. This, after all, is rugby league’s man of the moment. A player who is in one of the most purple of patches modern rugby league has seen.

Nathan Cleary has been the player of the season, but Trbojevic has been the player of the last month or so. His form has been a sight to behold.

He has returned from hamstring problems and transformed Manly, prompting Queensland coach Paul Green to concede on Friday that the Maroons will need to be on their toes to stop Trbojevic.

He looks invincible.

“I wouldn’t say that,” Trbojevic said.

“Back to Manly, we have a very clear plan going into the game. When you have those players around you and a very clear plan….”

Surely there is more to it? There must be something more?

“This is probably the best I have been physically for a while,” Trbojevic said.

“For me it is all about ticking boxes. When you come into a game clear and knowing what to do, you slot into a role.

“It’s not like you go out there feeling invincible. You go out there knowing your role.”

Fittler wasn’t kidding.

“The game is quicker – I think it suits me,” Trbojevic said.

“I feel like I can understand the game and see a lot of things. I am not giving you much. I just feel clear going out and playing footy.

“You have come to the wrong place if you are looking for something. I have nothing. I am no fun. I am just a footy player – I just play footy.

“I am not on social media, I don’t read anything. I have a new look on the world.”

Trbojevic has uncluttered his mind and dispensed with the outside distractions. At the same time, he has responded to ongoing hamstring problems by working on his running technique with Manly’s athletic development and rehabilitation coach Rubin Ruzicka, who returned to the club late last year.

As part of his rehabilitation, earlier in the year he flew to Melbourne with teammate Kieran Foran and visited experts at the Australian Catholic University.

“I guess it is not a surprise when I saw what I saw in pre-season,” Foran said.

“I always knew he was world class watching him from afar, But then when I came back to Manly this year and did a pre-season with him, it blew me away.

“I was going home most afternoons and going ‘wow’. It is everything with Tommy. I think the thing that blows me away is that his footy smarts are incredible, really high.

“Then I think in this game there would be blokes who have that high level of footy smarts but they lack the athleticism to go with it.

“The thing that separates Tommy is he is such an athlete along with such a high footy IQ. Along with (Daly) Cherry-Evans, he has the lowest skin folds in the club, he doesn’t have an inch of fat on him.

“At 106 kilos, he is lightning fast, he is brave.”

On and on it goes. Lashings of praise.

“That was one of the first things I got to realise when I got there with him – he doesn’t overthink things and he doesn’t get in his own head,” Foran said.

“There are so many things he has done over the past 10 weeks that I have just marvelled at. In the moment, gone ‘wow’. He is a special footballer.

“If he can stay injury-free and taking everything in his stride and doing everything he is doing, the sky is the limit.”

Trbojevic enters Origin with his confidence soaring. So good was his form, some dared to suggest he should have been the NSW fullback rather than incumbent and captain James Tedesco.

That was never going to happen. Tedesco has the runs on the board and he remains one of the best players in the game.

Fittler has given himself the best of both worlds. Trbojevic and Tedesco have the potential to give Queensland conniptions given with ability to break tackles and sniff out an opportunity.

They both have a rare blend of size, speed and power. Between them, they have the ability to wreak havoc.

“I just ask them to do what you can to make us win,” Fittler said.

“I back their judgment.”