Manly are performing better without Tom Trbojevic than at any other time across his luckless run of long-term injuries that began more than seven years ago.
Since the beginning of the 2019 season, the Sea Eagles’ marquee fullback has missed multiple NRL games through injury on 12 separate occasions.
But Manly had never posted a winning record during any of them, until Trbojevic’s ongoing lay-off with the hamstring injury he suffered in round seven.
“In the past, we’ve relied on Turbo a lot,” prop Taniela Paseka admitted.
Thursday’s clash with South Sydney is expected to be the last Trbojevic misses, with interim coach Kieran Foran previously flagging his return after the round-15 bye.
Without him, Manly have won four of their past six games for a 66 per cent winning record, with one of the losses coming by two points against premiership favourites Penrith.
Brother and teammate Ben Trbojevic said Foran had instilled belief that the Sea Eagles could win without their captain.
“When ‘Foz’ is telling you to do something, you just want to go out there and give it all for ‘Foz’. That’s shown in our results,” he said.
Manly winger Jason Saab credited the Sea Eagles’ performance in round seven for kickstarting their improved run.
Trbojevic went down in the 13th minute against highly-favoured North Queensland but his teammates rallied for a 38-6 win on the road.
“I felt like that went a long way to believing that we’ve got players that can fill in positions,” Saab said.
“I’m not sure, if we go on and lose that game, how we respond (to the injury). But the fact is we went on. No one lost any faith, or was worried, or thought we’ve got a Turbo curse or anything.
“We just went on and did our jobs.”
The emergence of back-up Clayton Faulalo as an NRL calibre fullback has also helped Manly’s case.
The 26-year-old had played only 11 NRL games before the season began, but has averaged 230 run metres and scored three tries in three games listed as starting fullback this year.
Paseka said he knew Faulalo had it in him to do “an exceptional job”.
“He trains like that, so I knew he did, he just needed the opportunity,” he said.
“When you have an opportunity and you take it, you can do a lot of things.”
MANLY’S RECORD WITHOUT TOM TRBOJEVIC SINCE 2019
2019
Rounds 1-2 (hamstring) 2 losses
Rounds 5-12 (hamstring) 4 wins, 4 losses
Round 17 (State of Origin duty) 1L
Round 25-semi final (pectoral) 1W 2L
2020
Rounds 7-18 (hamstring) 3W 9L
Round 20 (shoulder) 1L
2021
Rounds 1-5 (hamstring) 1W 4L
Round 14 (Origin) 1W
Round 17-18 (Origin) 1W 1L
Round 23 (cheekbone) 1W
2022
Rounds 5-8 (knee) 2W 2L
Rounds 12-25 (shoulder) 4W 9L
2023
Round 9 (groin) 1L
Round 13 (Origin) 1L
Rounds 16-27 (pectoral) 5W 6L
2024
Rounds 11-16 (hamstring) 2W 3L
Round 27 (shoulder) 1L
2025
Round 3 (hamstring) 1W
Rounds 5-7 (knee) 3L
Rounds 13-14 (thigh) 1W 1L
2026
Round 8-13 (hamstring) 4W 2L
