Inside the mind of Seibold and the Sea Eagles regarding Trbojevic’s switch to centre

Manly Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold has revealed the behind-the-scenes discussions that led to Tom Trbojevic’s selection at centre for their Round 18 clash against North Queensland.

Despite being one of the most talented and exciting fullbacks in the NRL, Trbojevic has had a poor run of injuries and his most recent setback was another hamstring injury suffered in Manly’s Round 10 loss to the Dolphins.

Seibold told SEN that the decision to switch him to centre ultimately came down to ensuring their best player was on the park and not in rehab.

“We looked at some objective data,” Seibold said on SEN 1170 Breakfast.

“There’s a lot of commentary about how fullbacks work harder than centres and we wanted to see if that was actually true.

“We looked at his data playing in the centres at Origin level.

“It was really even and the biggest difference was the super hard acceleration that a fullback does.

“That’s through taking back a kick or chasing down a tackle.

“There’s also a gut feel to it and I had a chat with him. Every time he gets injured, it dominates the news and it’s spread all over the back pages of the papers.

“It’s not just a physical load but a mental load and I want to get him back on the field.

“Kids want to watch him play, Manly supporters want to watch him play and even opposition supporters want him to play.

“We felt as though it was best to bring him back to the centres.

“It doesn’t mean he’s going to stay there (but) it was a gut feel.”

Manly travel to Townsville to take on the Cowboys on Saturday.