Comparisons to greats premature after milestone: Turbo
Tom Trbojevic has joined a rarefied league of Manly legends after notching another milestone in a glittering, if sometimes stop-start career.
Trbojevic brought up his 100th try for the club in the Sea Eagles’ 46-24 demolition of Canberra on Saturday, a feat he has managed in just 147 games.
The Dally M-winning fullback is set to go down as one of the Sea Eagles’ greatest ever in the position but shot down comparisons to the club’s all-time leading try-scorer Brett Stewart.
“I think you’re getting a bit ahead of yourself if you’re doing that,” he told AAP.
“I don’t like to compare myself to someone like Brett Stewart especially, who’s a two-time premiership winner and one of the greats of our club.
“I don’t think I’m in the same calibre of player as he is, but I’m just focused on what I can do here to make our team win some footy games.”
Stewart, who like Trbojevic came through Manly’s juniors system alongside his brother, scored 163 tries in 233 games for the club, which equates to one try every 1.43 appearances.
Trbojevic still has plenty of time left to chase the record of his predecessor at No.1.
But with a strike rate of one try every 1.47 games, the 27-year-old will need to stay largely injury-free to get there – something that has eluded him in his career so far.
Trbojevic’s contribution to the team goes far beyond his try-scoring ability though.
As well as scoring a brace against the Raiders, he set up two tries and two line-breaks and ran for a game-high 199 metres with the ball in hand.
“I didn’t actually know that (that was) 100 tries. That’s great,” coach Anthony Seibold said after the game.
“He’s outstanding. He injected himself into the game really early and I thought defensively he was very good as well. I think he saved a couple tries as well, so that’s what he can do.”
It was as complete a performance we’ve seen from Trbojevic since his return from a lengthy hamstring injury in round 18.
“It’s all about getting confidence and playing footy again,” he said.
“Sometimes s*** happens, you get injuries and you’ve just got to get it out of your head, build confidence and go back out there and do what you know you can do.”
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