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Souths and Manly played out an entertaining affair in their first trial of the year, but the Bunnies might end up counting the cost as Hame Sele limped out early on with a calf complaint.
One of the Bunnies’ main middles, he will now face a race against time to be available for their trip to the Shire to face Cronulla in just over three weeks’ time.
The injury early on marred what was an otherwise highly entertaining encounter in which Souths took a commanding early lead, only to be hauled back in, with Manly eventually winning out 30-28.
Certainly, if this is how the Anthony Seibold era is set to be for Manly, fans are in for a treat. It might not win many competitions, but it should be good to watch.
Souths, who already play some of the most attacking footy in the comp, were willing opponents and the pair produced some solid Friday night fun.
Here’s what we learned.
It’s hard to judge how a new coach will set his team up when only three of their potential best 17 take to the field, but let’s have a crack anyway.
Seibold’s Sea Eagles seemed to really push the offloads early on – maybe they were incentivised by that hundred grand for bonus points, who knows? – and were certainly not afraid to put air under the footy in good ball.
At times, it did look like Manly were trying to be as expansive as possible, but at others, that looked more like a function of who was on the park rather than any nascent coaching philosophy.
I watch a lot of Flegg – and a lot of Manly Flegg, as they run it before the main event at Brookvale Oval – and alongside from making me great fun at parties, it has also has attuned my footy senses to the tendency of young guys to throw it without fear of consequence.
It’s the sort of thing that fans say that they want NRL players to do (“They’ve had it coached out of them!”) but actually hate when it results in their team losing, as it periodically does.
Souths were the champs of expansive footy last year, but Manly more than matched them. Whether that transfers from this hodge podge of Blacktown Workers and Flegg players to the likes of Daly Cherry-Evans and Tom Trbojevic remains to be seen, but it was encouraging stuff nonetheless.
No, not that one. Or that one. The other one? Yeah, him. Ben Trbojevic got ten NRL games last year, in addition to four the year before, and now looks set to lock in a full-time spot under Anthony Seibold.
There’s the standard stuff you say about guys like him when they reappear at the age of 21: he’s grown into himself. Always a bigger frame, he’s now stacked on a bit of timber to go with it. Got his man strength, as they say in the world of boxing.
That’s one thing, but the more important is that he now looks like he belongs. It must be hard being the third brother to play NRL when the two that have gone before are walk up starters for New South Wales and Australia.
There’s expectations, but also none: how can you be as good as them, after all? Burbo has gone a little bit like that so far, but without the shadow of those two and surrounded by blokes his own age, you can see how far advanced he is.
“It’s nights like these that you can really force your way into an NRL side when you make a statement like Ben Trbojevic has,” said Mick Ennis. “He’s been terrific tonight. (He has) has clearly added some muscle over the summer, he’s been physical, he’s been aggressive and been a handful in the second row tonight.”
The leadership and influence he showed was befitting a first grader playing among juniors. If he can bring that every week in the NRL, Manly are onto a winner.
The bloodlines didn’t stop with the Trbojevic’s either: Zac Fulton’s try off a Cooper Johns pass brought together two of the most storied names in the sport. It was the best Fulton-Johns combination since the 1995 World Cup final.
Ok, it was less of a college and more of a clinic from the young fullback. Blake Taaffe is in a strange position of being a perfectly good fullback who just happens to be stuck behind a really, really good fullback and thus has no chance of playing.
He began last year in the 14 jumper at Souths, but was gradually squeezed out at Jason Demetriou preferred Kodi Nikorima in the utility role. Now, with a spot up for grabs again, Taaffe picked the perfect time to put forward his case.
He was superb in the first half, having a direct hand in several tries and an indirect one in others, while also offering threat from the back.
“I was very happy with Blake tonight,” said coach Demetriou after the game.
“There were some areas that let us down tonight, so we’ll get some lessons from that and obviously fatigue plays a part with it being your first hit-out. We’ve got a lot of work to do defensively, but we’re happy with where we are at.”
Peter Mamouzelos, who went well in the hooking role, is in a similar position behind Damien Cook, and the pair of them – along with Lachlan Ilias – came through together in the Bunnies’ Jersey Flegg team of 2019.
The trio were identified as future stars and, to some extent, that has come to pass: Ilias played regularly in the 7 in 2022, Taaffe played in the Grand Final in 2021 and Mamouzelos is clearly the next cab off the rank.
Taaffe has somewhat failed to capitalise on his stellar start, but did everything he could tonight to put a hand up for more regular game time in 2023.
Souths were the only side not to sign a single player this year, which raised more than a few eyebrows. They chose instead to extend the guys they had, and while the headlines of that are Latrell Mitchell, Cody Walker and Damien Cook, there were plenty of juniors that got more time to shine.
Looking at the youth stocks, you can see why they’re looking in house. Dion Teaupa, fresh out of Flegg, was a livewire and when he went off, Terell Kalo Kalo, the NSW u-19s fullback, was just as energetic.
“Teaupa is having a night out the young man,” said Mick Ennis on Fox League commentary. “He is playing with some confidence, he’s fit, he’s fast and his decision making on the edge has been superb.
“He’s making a name for himself tonight and that’s the great thing of this time of year. On the big stage and under the bright lights he looks right at home.”
Greg Alexander agreed. “I guess in trials you’re looking for those one percent efforts,” he said. “But the moments of gold – is there anything better than what he’s done? He’s come up with three brilliant moments where he’s scored two tries and laid one on.”
Souths were no great shakes in either Cup or Flegg last time out, but on the evidence of tonight, that won’t be the case this year.
More importantly, it shows that there is a cohort coming through that Demetriou can take a serious look at. Given the confidence being shown by South Sydney in their own systems, w should see a few of them come through.
They say that the results in trial footy doesn’t matter, but it probably won’t feel like that for Adam O’Brien and the Newcastle Knights.
They put out a fairly strong side, with close to their best forward pack on the ground, and got comprehensively rolled by an inexperienced Cronulla Sharks, copping a 26-16 loss in Gosford to start the Friday night double header.
Newcastle threw a fair bit at this, with probably the best spine they could have fielded plus a pair of Saifitis and an all first grade forward pack, but struggled to generate much in attack against a well-organised Cronulla side.
Craig Fitzgibbon will be happy with the way that his side played confident, sensible rugby league to ground this Newcastle team into the dust. They weren’t perfect, but they were just about as close to it as trial footy gets.
“We’re getting through our work and blowing out the cobwebs,” said the coach. “We feel like we’ve placed those legends with those up-and-comers, but for a first hit-out that was decent.
The weather in Gosford was pure summer, but the Knights were caught cold. Newcastle must have felt the sweat on their palms because – even within the parameters of a preseason game – this was some shocking handling.
They rolled out close to their best available spine, with Tyson Gamble deputising for the injured Kalyn Ponga and Bailey Hodgson getting first crack at the fullback jersey before Lachie Miller – recently arrived from Cronulla – is in the door.
All eyes were on Hodgson, and with good reason. The young Englishman has rarely been sighted after several elbow injuries ruined his 2022, but there was no ignoring him here, though mostly for negative reasons.
It was the archetypical mixed bag: there were errors, both in yardage and execution, but also all the attacking upside that showed just why O’Brien has so much faith in the lad.
A disallowed try showed all that confidence, with a smart step and then the most insouciant of offloads to put Dylan Lucas over. An obstruction helped, of course, and that’s why it didn’t stand, but you couldn’t ignore the movement and evasion nonetheless.
Newcastle tried at times in 2022 to work a little magic in their spine through Adam Clune and Jake Clifford, allied to Kurt Mann as a ball-playing lock and Connor Randall at hooker. Now, thanks to injury returns, repositioning and recruitment, they are primed to attempt something similar but with different components.
Jackson Hastings showed a flash of what he can do for a first half try and Jayden Brailey offered far more than Randall ever managed. Mann was also influential in the 13 jumper, at least when the Knights got enough ball for him to get involved.
It’s the kernel of an idea that O’Brien clearly prioritised in 2022 but was unable to enact as injuries, then a lack of confidence, then a borderline despondency took hold. By the end of the year, it was hard to see what their plan had once been, or if there had ever been one in the first place.
Hope springs eternal and every year is a new one. The Knights will be far from happy with how things went defensively in the middle, but their spine does at least look a lot stronger in 2023. It’s up to the forwards to give them something to play with from now on though – and for everyone else to catch the ball.
Cohesion is not usually a major plus point in trials, but Cronulla had plenty of it. Granted, most of it came from a significant contingent of Newtown Jets players – they of the 2022 NSW Cup minor premiership – and it helped them run over the Knights.
Kayal Iro was the star of that side for the bulk of the year at Henson Park and earned himself a late year NRL debut on the back of that form. If this performance is anything to go by, it won’t be the last.
Iro proved one of the most elusive, damaging runner outside of the NRL last year and backed that up with a performance that will impress Craig Fitzgibbon. At a less stacked club, with fewer exceptional backs, he would probably already be a regular in first grade.
It’s hard to see where Iro fits in with Jesse Ramien and Siosifa Talakai having mortgages on his preferred centre position, while outside of them, Sione Katoa and Ronaldo Mulitalo are among the best wing pairing in the NRL.
Oh, and Connor Tracey, Matt Ikuvalu and a thousand fullbacks are on staff too. Add Daniel Atkinson to that, with the recently-arrived Italian international providing a creative spark from the back, too.
You might throw Tom Hazleton into the same boat. The pathway for forwards is a little easier, but it speaks to where Cronulla were last year that someone as clearly ready for regular first grade couldn’t get more football in the NRL than he did.
The case was underlined again tonight with a series of strong carries and a characteristically powerful try. The Sharks let Franklin Pele walk because they knew Hazelton was there – so you have to expect to see more of him in 2023.
Jayden Berrell was a third who showed that the belonged in this company. He’s 27 now and still awaiting an NRL debut, but has done just about everything except play top grade.
He was player of the year in the Queensland Cup in 2021, then impressed for Newtown in 2022, but remains behind Blayke Brailey in the Sharkies pecking order, with a repurposed Cam McInnes likely to fill in if the starter was to go down.
He’s signed for another year to the top squad at Cronulla, but with Brailey a regular 80 minute player, there’s not even been a chance off the bench.
Tonight, however, there were two Jayden Bs on the park playing hooker, and it was the one with 100 fewer first grade appearances who looked the more at home.